Savages
by electric gurrl
Summary: Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for twelve continuous hours. Police, fire, and emergency medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM, when The Purge concludes. — Tyzula Advent 2019. AU. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I haven't been posting much this year thanks to premed and a psychotic break but I want to reignite that spark with this Tyzula Advent story. It's a _The Purge _AU because I have been obsessed with those movies and the TV Show lately (fun fact: The Purge takes place on my birthday). It's rated T for intense graphic violence and moderate mature themes/humor. Thank you for clicking and I really hope you enjoy the show!

* * *

**SAVAGES**

* * *

_**Murder lives forever  
**__**And so does war  
**__**It's survival of the fittest  
**__**Rich against the poor  
**__**At the end of the day  
**__**It's a human trait  
**__**Hidden deep down inside of our DNA  
**_"_**Savages" – Marina **_

* * *

_**CHAPTER ONE**_

* * *

**Shopping Spree (5:45 PM, March 21st)**

Ty Lee unscrews the shimmering golden cap of a coral pink lipstick, the final touch on her ensemble for a party she wishes she never agreed to attend.

Zuko, her fiance, stands on the other side of the room trying to select a tie that Ozai would approve of. He never likes seeing his father, and usually skips the annual Purge Parties Ozai hosts, but tonight he intends to announce his engagement to Ty Lee.

Slowly, Ty Lee looks up from her vanity table mirror. "Azula's going to be there, isn't she?"

Zuko scratches his chin and squirms slightly. "I'm not exactly on speaking terms with her but I doubt my father would let her be anywhere else tonight."

Ty Lee asks a question to which she already knows the answer." Does your dad still blame me for the shopping spree fiasco?"

"I would have said yes if it weren't for our invitation to his purge party."

Ty Lee turns her scoff into a cough and smiles warmly at him. She knows very well that Ozai and Azula never forgive, but she will take her chances if need be.

Zuko has an announcement for Ozai.

Ty Lee has an announcement for Zuko.

"You'll look out for me, right?" asks Ty Lee, batting her long fake eyelashes. They perfectly accent her tight, sequined pink dress.

"How many times to I have to tell you that it's not a trap?" Zuko snaps., tossing a tie down onto the plush bed.

Ty Lee pops the lid back onto her lipstick and sets it down with trembling fingers.

"Until I believe you when you say it." She unscrews the top of her mascara - deciding on yet another layer - as she speaks. "Even if your father doesn't care, Azula does. I betrayed her."

Zuko shrugs, much to his fiancee's dismay. "It was three years ago."

"So?"

"A lot can change in three years."

Ty Lee huffs. "I betrayed her. Her girlfriend and best friend betrayed her during a _purge_. Azula never even forgave me and Mai for decorating her locker the wrong color on her birthday freshman year. We basically left her to die in a Sephora."

Zuko rests his hand on Ty Lee's bare shoulder. "You didn't have a choice."

"I still don't think we should announce our engagement during a purge. Your dad isn't going to like hearing it." Ty Lee gently removes Zuko's hand from her skin and he returns to picking out the perfect tie.

"So he's an asshole, but he's still my father."

"He's not just your father," says Ty Lee in the car. "He's one of the _New Founding_ Fathers."

Zuko adorns himself with a shiny crimson tie and adjusts it until it looks presentable.

He cannot summon a response to Ty Lee's blunt statement. All he can say is, "We have to go. It's almost an hour drive and we need to get there before people start shooting at us."

Ty Lee nods and rises to her feet.

[X]

Half an hour later, Ty Lee sleepily rests her head against the window as Zuko drives through the intense traffic.

"I should have never gone on that shopping spree with Mai and Azula. It was the biggest mistake of my life," weakly whispers Ty Lee, her perpetual optimism of course failing her at a critical moment.

Zuko tries to lighten her up by saying, "We'd never be together if it didn't happen."

Ty Lee forces a smile. She does love him, but if she could turn back time she would have made Azula and Mai stay inside until morning that year. She would return things to how they were when she was young and carefree and hopeful.

But her fiancé does not need to know that.

* * *

**ALL I WANT (6:50 PM, March 21st)**

The party stuns Ty Lee, and she certainly grew up with money as a blushingly beautiful debutante. Glistening gowns sweeping above overpriced sparkling heels. Men guiding women while their crisp suits accentuate their muscles. Confetti, champagne, live music, weary waiters carrying silver platters of delicacies, dancers and politicians and glitterati.

The décor is as vividly red and gold as the crowd at a Gryffindor quidditch match.

To a breathless Ty Lee, it looks like something out of _The Great Gatsby_.

But the jovial glory ends when the music stops and Ozai walks to the top of the balcony, looking down at his privileged guests.

"Welcome, to the best Purge Party yet. We have an excellent selection of martyrs, and a plan for the events of the night that I know you will all find exciting. Thank you for coming," he says as the highest priced security system locks the mansion down. "Enjoy yourselves."

The large television at the forefront of the room flickers on as all do on March 21st, moments before the ominous sirens blare in every city.

_"__**This is not a test. This is your emergency broadcast system announcing the commencement of the Annual Purge sanctioned by the U.S. Government. Weapons of class 4 and lower have been authorized for use during the Purge. All other weapons are restricted. Government officials of ranking 10 have been granted immunity from the Purge and shall not be harmed. Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours. Police, Fire, and Emergency Medical Services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. when the Purge concludes. Blessed be our New Founding Fathers and America, a nation reborn. May God be with you all."**_

Silence.

Utter, unbreakable silence.

Ty Lee softly takes Zuko's hand and squeezes it for comfort, still unsure if Ozai or Azula will kill her tonight. He squeezes back as reassuringly as he can.

Reality abruptly and harshly resumes when champagne bottles pop and spray expensive foam over the thrilled, bloodthirsty crowd.

Ty Lee kisses Zuko.

"I'm going to find a bathroom before the purging starts," she lies, her warm breath tickling his neck. He kisses her a second time.

She steps away.

He returns to mentally reciting what he must say to announce his engagement to Ozai.

[X]

After a lengthy period of time wandering around the ground floor tying to convince herself she is not looking for who she knows she is looking for, Ty Lee finds Azula sipping champagne alone in a gilded but dusty alcove. A smart woman would walk away, but never in her life had Ty Lee been called smart.

"Hey," says Ty Lee softly, heart beating so frantically that she feels dizzy and faint.

She practices her smile as she anxiously waits for Azula to slowly turn around.

And she does. Her short azure dress sparkles with priceless gems and hugs her form in all of the right places. With her perfect hair and perfect makeup and intense eyes, she looks like a goddess, and a wrathful one at that.

"Hey," says Azula, biting back vile and venomous words she wants to speak. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to see you," admits Ty Lee before forcing an innocent smile. Azula sees through her like cotton fabric at a wet t-shirt contest.

"You wanted to test if I have forgiven you yet."

"No but…" Ty Lee takes a few nervous breaths. "But have you? Can you?"

Azula sneers. "I would have given you the world and you betrayed me. I will not forgive that." As tantalizing as it may be when looking at Ty Lee in that dress with those lips.

"How's life with ZuZu?"

In utter earnest and a spark in her eyes, "It's wonderful, a real dream."

She thinks she means it. She really does.

Azula coldly asks, "Do you wish you dated him first instead of me?"

"I probably would cheat on him with you and destroy the family." Ty Lee giggles awkwardly.

Why did she say that? Why did she say that? Why did she say that?

"I think you already destroyed my family," snarls Azula, so composed but so angry. She does calm her tone and feign an expression of pity. "You would have been better off if you never got tangled in my family's web."

"I can't imagine not knowing you all. I wouldn't want to live in a world where you and Zuko and Mai are strangers."

"Sometimes I do think we would be better off as strangers," muses Azula, a fleeting note of regret and sadness in her voice. "I should go."

The moment Azula turns to walk away Ty Lee gently grabs her wrist.

"Azula… I'm pregnant."

"Oh." Azula haughtily straightens her posture and purses her lovely crimson lips. When she aat last speaks, she laces every syllable with venom. "Well, all you ever wanted was a family. Congratulations."

Ty Lee's heart beats like a hammer as she grabs Azula's wrist to keep her from running.

She tries with all of her might to focus on the gorgeous wedding she and Zuko have been planning. She tries to focus on the happy flutters she feels when she thinks about him holding their newborn baby for the first time.

But still the cold truth slips from her luscious lips. "All I ever wanted was a family with _you."_

Azula's eyes flash with a brutal and brilliant surge of flame as she shakes Ty Lee's hand off of her arm. "And you tell me that tonight. You tell me that on the anniversary of the night when you destroyed any chance of me loving you again. You betrayed me. I am sure Zuko would be an adequate father."

"I wouldn't have if…" Ty Lee clamps her mouth shut, well aware she just made a grave mistake.

"If?" Azula slowly steps closer, rage gleaming in her molten gold eyes. Ty Lee tries not to cower or flinch. She fails.

Ty Lee blinks back tears. "I was just waiting for you to leave me. You never would have let us be together forever."

"Why?" snaps Azula, stunned by the absurdity of the statement. "Why?" Azula scoffs. "You would say anything to make me pity you enough to forgive you."

"Because…" stammers Ty Lee as Azula rolls her eyes, straightens her shoulders and starts walking away. "Because I already was afraid you would leave me. I knew you weren't interested in me anymore. Love bores you."

Azula turns to Ty Lee for one last flicker of a second, then haughtily turns her back to her ex as she slowly begins to leave the room.

"Love doesn't bore me," says Azula over the click of her scarlet pumps. "It disappoints me."

And Ty Lee suffocates.

[X]

Before deciding to be brave and make amends with Azula before announcing her engagement to Zuko, Ty Lee stays in that alcove for too long, staring at a blank wall in a dazed state.

Her greatest talent has always been making friends. Hopefully that applies to winning back friends too.

After briefly combing through the congregation, she strikes gold when she sees a girl in a short, simple but sexy black dress sipping blood red sangria from a clear crystal glass.

"Mai!" chirps Ty Lee, forgetting about her former lover for a few moments.

The woman turns to her and instinctively dodges an attempted suffocating hug.

They have not spoken since the shopping spree incident, but they had been best friends since before they even were capable of speech. It brings both joy and pain to Ty Lee when she looks at how truly beautiful the sallow goth has become.

"Ty Lee, I'm surprised to see you here tonight," says Mai.

"I'm surprised to _be_ here tonight." She at last successfully acquires her hug and steps back. "Have you seen Azula?"

She tries not to sound desperate or frantic but fails.

Lacking any emotion as usual, Mai gestures at a crowded clump of sweating guests. "She stormed off in that general direction."

"You didn't follow her?"

With half of a sigh, Mai deadpans, "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know, maybe to see if she's _okay_?" Ty Lee kisses Mai on the cheek and hugs her again. "I promise I'll find you later and we can catch up."

After pivoting away from her estranged best friend, Ty Lee resumes dashing through the party, completely flustered behind her flawless makeup and delicate braid.

She finds Azula in the unlikeliest place: talking to Zuko.

Ty Lee slowly approaches as Azula says in a tone like artificial sugar, "I just want to let you know that I'm happy for you two, especially now that you've decided to start a family… something she and I used to talk about."

Zuko blinks as his heart skips a beat. "Start a what?"

"A family." A glowing gleam of wickedness consumes Azula's entire visage. Ty Lee feels nauseated at the nightmare she cannot circumvent. "She hasn't told you that she's pregnant?"

"I'm not - I - it wasn't planned." Zuko's eyes bulged as he loosened his tie, short of breath.

Azula smiles sweetly. "I shouldn't have assumed you knew. Your life has always been more about regret management than goal achievement."

A thunderous grinding of metal interrupts the loathing siblings.

The security system just unlocked.

The lights flicker off.

In the darkness, a loud voice calls out, "Get ready to bleed, rich bitches! This is our time now!"

And then the cacophony of gunfire starts.

Azula runs, leaving the traitors behind as she dashes to her bedroom and locks the door.

Ty Lee grabs onto Zuko and suppresses her scream.

* * *

**PANIC (8:15 PM, March 21st)**

The armed intruders move in like a tsunami made of gunfire and shouts of "Down with the NFFA!"

Mai weaves through the panicked crowd like a sleek panther and tugs on Ty Lee at the same time as Zuko.

But the only thing Ty Lee manages to croak out is, "Where's Azula?"

"She ran upstairs," hastily whispers Zuko as he shoves himself and both girls to the floor, trying to shield them both from the bullets flying vigorously over where they just stood.

"We have to get her." Ty Lee seizes a silver platter, lets the food fall into a slimy mess at her feet, and trembles as she holds it and crawls over dead bodies and under soon-to-be dead bodies. She makes it to the stairs and starts running up, dodging attacks, as Zuko and Mai weave between rebels behind her.

"Ty Lee!" calls out Mai from the stairwell where she and Zuko both stand, glancing frantically over her shoulder at the massacre below. "We have to get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving Azula! Not this time! Can you two live with leaving her to die?" The silence speaks volumes. "Fine. You both can choke!"

Ty Lee turns hastily and starts running up the stairs again.

Mai and Zuko exchange an exasperated glance before racing up the stairs behind her.

At least the rebellion has not made their way to the upper levels yet; they are too busy systematically slaughtering the guests in the main ballroom.

Ty Lee runs, fiancé and friend following her, and starts pounding on her ex-girlfriend's bedroom door. She shouts inside, her words almost unintelligible above the screaming downstairs.

"Azula! It's me! It's Ty Lee! Let me help you!"

At long last, the door creaks open and three young adults burst inside, Zuko slamming the door behind him. Azula glares at them with her arms crossed.

For lengthy, painful moments no one speaks.

What could they talk about?

They are all about to die under the uncaring eyes of stuffed animals and martial arts posters.

But Mai takes control, her perpetually cool head the saving grace for her and her former friends.

"Azula, you remember as well as Ty Lee and I how we used to sneak out during sleepovers. Zuko, get that window open. Ty Lee, stop crying. Azula, get over here," bluntly orders Mai, and the switch from her apathetic self compels everyone in the room to obey.

They just need to get onto the rooftop and down to the empty garden below.

As she shakily walks to the window, Azula gasps out, "This is illegal. It's against the rules to kill high ranking government officials."

Zuko glances over his shoulder. "I don't think they care. They're not purging. They're revolting."

He grabs his stunned sister by the waist and helps her out of the window. After taking his fiancée by the wrist, he does the same for Ty Lee. Mai waves him away and crawls out on her own. Zuko takes one glance behind him and then clambers out to join them. He slams the window shut and they all crawl towards the heavily enforced drainage pipe.

Ty Lee goes first, then Azula, then Mai, then Zuko. As soon as they reach the ground, they do nothing but stare at each other. No one thought this far.

Mai finally straightens her posture. "We need to get to my car. I don't have my fucking keys but we need to get what's in my trunk if we want to live."

"How ominous," mocks Azula with an indignant scoff. "What will we find? Tacky black outfits to help us hide in the shadows?"

Mai remains unfazed. "I don't have time to explain or suffer through your half-assed snark. Anyone who wants to stay alive until daylight can follow me."

Uneasily, Azula seething with anger that she is not the one in charge, they sneak into the parking lot. Grenades, screams and gunfire still echo through the gigantic mansion.

"Zuko, give me a hand," says Mai as they reach a sleek black sports car.

He obediently helps her open the trunk and steps backwards in surprise.

Instead of a spare tire and a skateboard, inside lay more weapons than an arms dealer would touch in their lifetime.

"Drive through a lot of bad neighborhoods?" asks Zuko, regaining his composure.

Mai grabs a pistol from the hidden stash more suitable for a drug lord than for a woman under twenty. "Better safe than sorry."

"Zuko, I want to go home," begs Ty Lee, tears glistening in her protuberant eyes.

He wishes he could tell his fiancée what she wants to hear, but tonight the truth is necessary. "That's almost an hour drive and none of us know how to hotwire a car. My Uncle Iroh lives closer and there's a Hell of a lot more cover on those back roads."

"As long as he doesn't make us drink weird tea and listen to whale songs again," huffs Azula, grabbing an entire assault rifle from Mai's trunk.

Zuko replies while snagging a revolver and weathered case of ammo, "Personally I'd rather drink a gallon of that shit than be brutally murdered."

They all nod. They all arm themselves to the teeth.

They all begin to walk towards either death or salvation.

Azula has always been a goal oriented woman.

And now a simple and solitary one lies before her.

Her only objective until the sun rises and the sirens blare can be summed up in one word.

Survive.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

**BRIGHT (8:45 PM, March 21st)**

A quartet of survivors strides anxiously through the forested back roads that, in a meandering fashion, lead to Iroh's manse.

"The moon is totally giving me the creeps," whispers Ty Lee as she shivers and sneaks through the ominous woods with her motley crew of escapees. She stays as close to Zuko as possible, but cannot conceal her occasional glances at Azula.

"Why?" asks her fiancé as he squints up at the star-studded sky.

"It's too bright." Ty Lee partially shrugs through her shivering.

"Well I'm being given the creeps because you and Azula's clothes are too bright."

"Forgive me for not taking the rebellion of the proletariat into account when selecting my ensemble for tonight," snarls Azula, adjusting the hem of her dress.

Mai strides forward to stand beside Zuko. "Speaking of clothes, if you're going to keep your gun in your pants like that, you might want to put the safety on."

He freezes in panic and she reaches down to fix the problem. Ty Lee puckers her lips and restrains her anger; now is not the time for jealousy.

As he resumes walking, Zuko asks, "Why do you know so much about weapons?"

"More importantly, why was your car full of them?" inquires Azula with a cocked eyebrow.

Mai snorts. "Why do you think my dad loves the Purge so much? He's a weapons dealer on the side of his business shit. Those were the surplus of what he didn't sell this year."

"Yeah, well I've never fired a weapon in my life,," remarks Zuko.

"Neither have I," adds his pregnant fiancée, giving her weapon a disdainful look.

Azula snidely corrects her. "We went on a paintball date once, Ty."

"Please don't call me that anymore," snaps Ty Lee.

Azula scoffs. "Then don't call me princess anymore."

Zuko pivots to face his sister. "She called you princess?"

"It was just habit!" protests Ty Lee.

Mai interrupts, "You got a pellet gun from your uncle when you were twelve."

"You remember that?" Zuko stares at her for a few puzzled moments.

"Yeah. Azula threw a fit because she got a Barbie Dreamhouse instead of a weapon. The principle is the same as a pellet gun or paintball. Pull the trigger and don't be an idiot."

"ZuZu might have trouble with that last part," snarks Azula.

"As if you're in a better position," snaps her brother.

Azula stops in her tracks and the others soon do the same. "In case you all have woefully short memories, three years ago I survived a Purge. Alone. I can do it again."

Silence.

[X]

They do not make it far before they run into a blockade run by bloodthirsty Purge participants in animal masks holding even more weapons than Mai had in her trunk. Bodies hang weakly, dead and soaked in blood and guts, hanging from ropes or impaled on spikes.

Even this early in the night, the Purge has already made grand progress.

One participant in a giraffe mask says to a girl in a wolf mask, "I told you heaps of people try to hide in these woods. They try to rob all these rich houses but don't have good enough escape plans."

"Okay, babe, just shut it. I'm sorry I didn't believe you." Pause. "But you gotta admit there are way too many other gangs and blockades out here because of that. We're barely getting our fair share."

He laughs mirthlessly. "Like we'd get our fair share down town. Besides, with tits like yours the snatchers would be carting you off for sale to a private Purge before you could fire a shot."

"I can take care of myself."

Zuko turns to his companions as they hide in the bushes.

"I have a plan to get past them," he whispers.

Azula softly cackles. "_You _have aplan? Why would we ever listen to you?"

"Because no one else is proposing any ideas."

Mai bluntly whispers, "Just spit it out."

"Azula, you and Mai flank out and set your sights on the targets. Ty Lee, provide covering fire from here if we need it. I'll run forward and draw their attention."

"Draw their attention? ZuZu, you're an idiot. Don't push your luck on a Purge."

"I'm surprised you're so concerned about my safety."

"I'm just concerned they'll miss you and hit me."

"Thanks, makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside."

Their plan unfolds perfectly for two entire minutes. Zuko gets grabbed and despite breaking free, draws more attention than he expected.

Perhaps a distraction was not a fantastic idea.

"I have a gun!" he shouts, waving it in the air.

Azula rolls her eyes so ferociously she sees stars. Ty Lee takes a deep breath to soothe her racing heart. Mai's finger twitches preemptively to the trigger of her rifle.

"Do you know how to use it?" asks the man in the elephant mask.

"I'm an American. Of course I do."

The man laughs and extends his arms. "Then shoot."

With ice in his ordinarily molten eyes, Zuko raises the gun and pulls the trigger.

Click.

The man and his murderous compatriots burst into laughter as they raise their weapons.

Zuko left the safety on. Mai sighs, knowing it was her fault, but still blaming him. Azula's finger twitches to the trigger but during her moment of hesitation Ty Lee leaps to her feet. She ignores her role as covering fire and goes full Rambo.

She runs forward, fatally shooting two of the raiders. One lunges at her with his machete and she grabs his arm, twisting it so fiercely that it cracks and he screams in pain, stumbling backwards. She hops towards him and punches him in the face. Blood spurts from his nose as she mows down the two raiders advancing on her.

Azula and Mai leap into action and take down the rest as Ty Lee kicks the sole living man down to the ground. He groans and screams, his unbroken arm on his busted nose, and the arm holding his snapped bone pinned to his bruised chest.

Ty Lee spits on him, adding for good measure, "And your stupid masks look like Zoo Pals."

She shoots one bullet right into his chest and runs to hug and kiss Zuko.

Azula cannot hide the monster of jealousy roaring in her chest as Mai runs over, grabs her, and beckons for Ty Lee and Zuko to follow.

They make a break for it before any more raiders can appear, and after a solid seven or eight minutes running in heels (or dress shoes in Zuko's case) they stagger to a sore stop.

Ty Lee embraces her fiancé and then steps back, locking eyes with him. "Are you okay?"

Zuko takes in two short gasps before hoarsely answering, "I don't know how to answer that question right now."

"There are too many blockades on these back roads," says Mai. "We have to cut through the city if we want to get to Iroh's place before getting killed. It's what? Like thirty minutes that way?"

"Yeah. I know it sucks but I gotta agree."

No one argues.

The objective to survive is too important to take any extra risks in these woods and filthy, infested back roads.

**WHINING (9:15 PM, March 21st)**

As they march towards the quietest possible section of the city, Ty Lee softly and incessantly squeals, "We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna—"

Azula grabs Ty Lee's arm.

"For fuck's sake, I am_ ordering _you to _stop _saying that!"

They walk in silence for some time before the whining resumes, but this time from dark plum matte lips.

"This is easily the second worst night of my life," complains Mai.

Azula asks, bewildered and not hiding it, "What could possibly be worse than this?"

"Senior prom." She jabs Zuko's shoulder. "I can't believe you made me go."

"He just wanted you to lie down out of pity. Good thing you didn't. Oh wait! You did."

Mai says dryly. "How are you not murdered every single Purge?"

"Quit whining," Azula hisses.

Mai snaps, sudden emotion in her voice, "Don't tell me what to do."

"You ought do as I tell you. I was born to lead and you all are nothing but followers."

Mai strengthens her stance and locks eyes with Azula for the first time in years. "Listen up, a lot can change in three years. I was your little lipstick minion for a long time. But now I take orders from only one person. Myself."

Zuko pushes them apart as they advance on each other. "This really, really doesn't seem like an opportune time for this conversation."

"We need a leader if we're going to survive the night. Someone to call the shots when we get scattered or out of sync."

"Well, I vote for Zuko," says Mai.

Azula whips around. "Ty Lee? Do you vote for me or for Zuko?"

"Uhm, uh, I vote for Mai!"

Zuko adds, "I vote for Mai too. She's the one who got us out of there."

Azula bitterly shakes her head. "Fine. It's your funeral. When she fails miserably at leadership I'm out. I can make it to morning alone, just like last time."

Ty Lee averts her eyes.

[X]

After being forced by the blockades of killers on the forested route to Iroh's house, the crew enters the city streets. Unsurprisingly, it does not take long for them to find trouble.

A drive by led by laughing men and women in masks. When they fail to make a kill, the car decorated with tasteless graffiti screeches to a stop.

The foursome dives behind whatever cover they can find. They hold their weapons close.

"Zuko!" cries out Ty Lee when machine gun fire obliterates the metal trash can she hides behind. She jumps over to duck down with her fiancé and ex-girlfriend. "Baby, do something!"

Tears well in her eyes. Mai makes a fabulous shot and takes down one of the assailants, but four still progress with the attack without even flinching over their fallen comrade.

"What do you want me to do?" hisses Zuko, petting Ty Lee's sweaty hair.

"You know what _I _want you to do?" Azula sneers. "Stand over there and shield us from bullets until you die."

Zuko groans. Mai makes a second devastating shot while ignoring the turmoil. Azula, expression sour with jealousy, peeks up above the cover and fires wildly until the last of the purge group falls dead with a splatter of blood.

Zuko rises and helps Ty Lee to her feet.

[X]

After what feels like ages but was only minutes, they halt their stealthy but steady walk through the shadows of the city when floodlights blind them.

"The three of them! That's exactly what he's looking for. Grab the girls and tell Big Daddy we have three more for his personal Purge."

It strikes Azula before she can wield her weapon. For years, except for the shopping spree incident, she participated in her father's personal Purge. She was the hunter; now she just became the hunted.

They quickly find the fight to be wildly imbalanced. The snatchers block the bullets with their high tech body armor, pushing the four survivors back with top of the line military weapons. Zuko narrowly avoids death and Mai tackles him, crawling beneath and coughing on the smoke from the grenades.

Azula and Ty Lee use brute force and years of martial arts training holding off the snatchers. Azula takes out two before she hears Ty Lee scream. Halfway through a violent attack that resulted in the snapped neck of one snatcher, two took her down and handcuffed her. Azula keeps up her fight as she tries to get Ty Lee, screaming and kicking and biting and fighting with everything in her as they drag her into the armored van.

As the smoke clears, Zuko grabs Azula and Mai shoves back the two remaining attackers.

"Not worth it. Take the one and move on!" barks the commander as Zuko struggles to hold Azula back from continuing the battle.

He did not notice.

He did not notice in time that they took off with his pregnant fiancee.

Azula breaks free of him when he lets out a wordless cry of rage and falls to his knees. Mai turns to him, neglecting to keep an eye on the most mentally unstable member of the quartet.

As she looks up, a burning car coasting by briefly blocks her view and she holds up her hand to block her face from ashes.

Mai drags Zuko to his feet.

"Calm the fuck down!" she shouts at him.

"They got Ty Lee," breathes Zuko, eyes wide and wounded. "They got Ty Lee."

Zuko turns to where Azula was standing when the burning car passed them and sees nothing but a pair of cerulean heels.

He says, "Either the witch finally melted or—"

And Mai merely points at the escaping snatchers, "She's on the roof of the van." Mai closes her eyes and sighs deeply. "We're going to follow those morons, aren't we?"

"Hell yeah we are."

Zuko cocks his gun.

**HOPE (9:45 PM, March 21st)**

Ty Lee loses all hope as she lies weakly on the cold metal floor of the van, vision blurry as she watches the snatcher soldiers communicate brusquely about their next stop. At least she will not be alone once they gather fresh victims. Two brag about the money they will rack up tonight and bile rises in Ty Lee's sore throat.

The car screeches to a stop.

Next fight, next harvest.

But when the door opens, bright, brilliant gunfire illuminates the vehicle interior.

"Hand her over and no one gets hurt!" declares the last voice Ty Lee ever expected to hear.

They laugh. The snatchers just laugh. Ty Lee shakes her head. Idiots. They have no idea what pain will hit them in mere moments.

They better hope she holds back or allows surrender.

Ty Lee smiles as Azula uses her assault rifle to take down the two idiots who removed their vests after the van doors closed and they started moving to the next target.

Three snatchers lunge at her. One seizes her and smashes her into the wall with one harsh push. Azula recovers and aims a shot at him but it does no damage against his body armor. She runs forward as one of the other soldiers grabs her by the arm and spins her. She almost hits the floor but remains balanced on her feet. She swipes him down by one kick to the ankles.

Azula aims for his neck beneath the helmet and kills him with only a few bullets. One grabs her leg just as she finishes and throws her down onto her back. It knocks the winds out of her and she gasps for breath as he aims his gun at her.

She leaps back up to her feet but his aim remains steady until the commander reaches out to seize him and Azula scuttles to cover behind the security cameras, still panting.

Seeing the fight about to fail, Ty Lee does what she knows she must and endures agony as she drags herself forward like an inchworm trying to escape sunlight. The pistol lies so close in front of her but it seems too far away. Azula cries out from a chokehold and it gives Ty Lee enough passion and incentive to finally grab it.

The commander grabs his soldier as another two engage with Azula and barks, "Don't kill her! She's worth at least two thousand!"

Azula roundhouse kicks one in the face with enough force to knock off his helmet. As he stumbles, his friend grabs her from behind by both arms.

She shakes against him as she spits out vehemently, "I am going to kick two thousand dollars worth of your asses!"

"Try it, little girl!" snarls the commander, spittle flying from his thin lips.

"Azula!" Ty Lee throws her the pistol that shakes in her cuffed hands.

Azula swiftly kicks behind her, smashing the soldier in the groin, and seizes the gun from midair when he yelps and releases her. She fires two rounds into the head of the helmetless snatcher and his brains splatter onto the wall of the van.

Two of the final four snatchers start to advance on Azula, helmet shields open to give them better sight on her. She sees her opportunity and takes it as they pass near the security cameras they use to select victims.

She raises the pistol and shoots all of them. Glass goes flying and as the men scatter she shoots the two who she blinded. Flying forward, she tackles the commander. Straddling his stomach, she shoots his last soldier in the back of the neck the moment he kneels to mourn his friends.

Azula tears the helmet from the commander and places er hands on his throat, pressing as haras she can despite the glass digging into her bare legs.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Slowly, gasping for breath and sweating through her azure party dress, she stands up.

Azula shoots the last of the twitching bodies and grabs the cuff keys from the commander's belt before limping over and kneeling beside the bitch who dumped her.

"How did you find me?" gasps out Ty Lee.

Azula unlocks the handcuffs and Ty Lee rubs her chaffed wrists. "Oh, it was easy. I just listened for the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that."

Ty Lee almost laughs. And then does. And the adrenaline sends her into a fit of uncontrollable and inappropriate giggles. Azula smiles. A full smile. Not just her smirk, and Ty Lee's heart swells in response.

She lunges forward and tightly embraces Azula.

And then makes a horrible, unforgivable mistake.

Ty Lee moves to kiss her cheek, and then out of some sick impulse, kisses her on the lips. And not just a peck, violently, passionately, ferociously. Azula returns in kind, eyes softly closed.

"I'm sorry," whispers Ty Lee as she pulls away.

"I won't tell him."

"No, I'm sorry for betraying you. I'm sorry for leaving you. Not a day goes by that I don't think about how much I regret it. I would do anything to make it up to you. I would do anything to make you and me and Mai best friends again like we used to be. Thank you. I never thought you would come back for me, come after me."

"I hate you, I still hate you, and I don't think anything can change that. But hating you doesn't mean I would ever let you die on my watch." Azula touches Ty Lee's face. "I twisted my ankle and there's glass in my legs. I can't get out of here alone."

Ty Lee grabs Azula and tries to lift her, tries to help her, and almost bursts into tears when she cannot manage. Azula gently pushes her back.

"I'm too screwed up. I don't know if I can help. But I'll get Mai and Zuko and come back. I promise. I promise I'm not leaving you again. I'll bring them as fast as I can." Ty Lee picks up Azula's weapon and hands it to her.

Azula hesitates, addled by adrenaline. She looks up at Ty Lee and draws in a shuddering breath.

"I know you will."

"How do you know?"

"What?" chokes out Azula, furrowing her brow.

Ty Lee blinks back a few tears. "How do you know you can trust me?"

"I don't," says Azula, and Ty Lee looks utterly crestfallen. "That's what trust is."

Ty Lee weakly smiles. "I'll be back. I promise."

Azula watches her leave.

She sincerely hopes she did not make a mistake by giving her ex a second chance.

Zuko grabs Ty Lee and pulls her into a tight embrace.

"We need to get Azula. Come on."

Mai follows first, as Ty Lee begins to run. Zuko joins them, but when Mai glances over her shoulder, she sees the pain in his expression.

Because they all know it. It's no secret.

Ty Lee still loves Azula, and she always will.

Mai has no idea why Zuko still hopes he can change that. No one can.

Still, they follow Ty Lee to her wounded princess. Zuko helps a cursing Azula to her feet and they resume their journey to Iroh's place, a brother keeping a sister steady as they walk, and eventually, lifting her up into a bridal carry to keep her off of her injured feet and legs.

Every step is pain for both of them, albeit for different reasons.

Yet, the weary quartet somehow manages to make it through the back streets of the city without another lethal encounter.

**EYE OF THE STORM (11:00 PM, March 21st)**

At the destination of the prolonged quest, Zuko pounds and pounds on his uncle's door before situating his face directly in front of the security camera.

"Uncle! Uncle, let us in!"

Slowly, movement shifts behind the door and mechanical locks grind open before Iroh opens the door and the four strays burst inside. He shuts down the security system before surveying the injured and exhausted young adults in his peaceful home.

"What happened?" Iroh asks Zuko, taking his nephew by the shoulders and turning him around.

"Anti NFFA revolutionaries at the party. They killed… probably everyone. We barely managed to escape."

Iroh falls silent, stunned by the news.

"Your father?"

Azula shoots him a warning look. Zuko manages to summon a shrug, biting his lower lip anxiously. Ty Lee takes Zuko by the hand and squeezes.

"Settle in," says Iroh. "We will wait out the night together. I'll brew some tea."

As he walks to the kitchen, he does not notice the masked faces in the window.

No one does.

* * *

**A/N: **I basically missed Advent, but I plan to finish all seven planned chapters of this fic since it's very fun to write. I wish I had been more on top of things but I've had a bad autoimmune flare up this month and really fell behind. Anyway, thank you for sticking with me and I hope you're enjoying the show.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

**HISTORY (11:20 PM, MARCH 21st)**

Zuko kneels in front of Azula as she sits on the rim of Iroh's Japanese soaking tub. They sit in the dim light of the master bathroom as he treats her wounds left over from the reckless rescue mission.

"I don't understand it," says Azula, teetering on her perch as Zuko rummages through the four first aid kits he messily spread across the tile floor.

"Understand what?" He at last grabs his tools and starts to remove the glass from her legs. After two hisses of pain and a spurt of blood, Azula seizes his shoulder.

"You've been protecting me all night. You fucking carried me here. Why?"

Zuko picks up the tweezers again. Azula barely restrains herself from flinching.

He asks calmly, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Our history isn't a pretty one," states Azula coolly, a soft sigh escaping her lips uninvited.

Zuko nodded with an amused smirk. "No. It's as ugly as they come. But you're my baby sister and I'm going to take care of you."

Azula winces as Zuko wiggles a particularly deep shard to pry it free. He at last removes it from her and begins to dress the wound.

"I've shown you no kindness," admits Azula, casting her gaze away from him.

Zuko tries to meet her eyes again and fails in the following silence. He takes a deep, slow breath before resuming his work on Azula's legs.

It hurts him to speak the following words, but he knows he has no choice. On a night where they both may die, it seems appropriate to at last tell his sister. "I never told you our mother's last words to me. She didn't give me a final comfort, or tell me she loved me one last time. She told me to take care of you. And I will honor that until the day I die."

Awestruck, Azula breathes, "She…?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

Silence.

Zuko finishes dressing a wound and picks up the tweezers again. Azula seizes the rim of the bathtub to steady herself and prepare for the pain.

After a few moments of quiet work, Zuko admits without a single glance up at his baby sister, "I know you were lying at the party. You're not happy for me and Ty Lee, and not just because you're inherently selfish and never happy for other people. You're still in love with her. But you have to live with it."

"I have just fine for three years. I am over her."

Zuko gestures at her legs. "Is this called being over her?"

"Not wanting someone to die and loving them are different things. We have a long history as friends, not just lovers. She betrayed that and I will never forgive her. But I wouldn't let her die."

Zuko does not bother with manners. He snorts and pointedly rolls his eyes. "If you say so."

"You sound like me." Azula suppresses a laugh, but her gilded eyes twinkle.

"Look, I'm going to marry her."

"You think she would say yes?"

"She already did."

Azula falls silent, truly stunned. She struggles to contain her jealousy, to refrain from breaking the bathroom mirror and stabbing Zuko in the neck with a shard of it. She could kill him tonight. It would be perfectly legal. But it would make Ty Lee hate her, Mai would flip, and Iroh would kick her out to fend for herself. Azula is loath to admit that it also would be a little more difficult after this conversation.

She just remains silent and lets Zuko continue treating her injuries.

[X]

Azula and Zuko walk down the stairs to see Iroh talking animatedly to Ty Lee and Mai. They are gathered in one of the many living rooms of the vast and complicated mansion.

"Pregnant? You must be thrilled." Iroh beams.

"I am. But not tonight," says Ty Lee, brushing her fingertips over her firm but still unnoticeable belly.

Iroh rests his hand gently on her shoulder for a brief moment before withdrawing it. He says with a smile, "You don't have to be worried anymore. You're safe here."

To tell the truth, nowhere truly is safe during a Purge, but Iroh's cozy interior decorating and the soft radio playing lovely old songs give an overpowering false sense of security. His warmth and certainty in his expensive Purge Protection system certainly do not quell the feelings of relaxation settling in.

Iroh looks at Zuko and Azula at last.

"Azula, you look much better." Pause. "I am sorry about your father."

"Maybe he made it," weakly says Azula, before clenching her fists out of anger towards herself for showing such vulnerability. "But if he didn't, I will be fine."

Ty Lee casts her gaze away, because she knows Azula will not be fine if Ozai died.

"I certainly will be," says Zuko.

"Oh?" Azula challenges, fire in her eyes. The urge to legally kill him comes over her again but she manages to restrain herself.

"We don't exactly have a fantastic history. Father did spend a lot of time calling me a mistake."

"Oh, please," scoffs Azula. "Bob Ross would call you a mistake."

Mai almost smirks. Ty Lee disguises her laugh as a cough. Zuko notices both but dignifies neither woman with a response.

When Iroh interrupts, they all expect a defense of Zuko, but instead, he says, "The security system just shut off."

"What?" Mai.

"How do you know?" Azula.

"Uncle?" Zuko.

"I don't understand." Ty Lee.

Iroh ignores his guests, a rudeness he never before has partaken in, and slowly walks towards the sleek silver control panel on the ugly yellow wall.

He frowns at it for a moment before tapping two buttons and stepping back.

"It's on again. Let me brew some more tea. I'll keep an eye on the system. It had a few small glitches last year too. I will have to invest in the update." Iroh shoots a glance at the security system and then turns to his guests. "Chamomile or peppermint?"

No one answers.

Their comfort vanished in an instant.

Something feels… off.

**STARS (11:45 PM, MARCH 21st)**

Half an hour later, Ty Lee sits on the windowseat with a cup of tea warming her hand. Zuko remains protectively beside her as Azula leans leisurely against the wall beside them.

Smiling at the barred window, Ty Lee remarks, "I know it's a horrible night but the stars really are beautiful."

"Indescribable," says Zuko, trying to smile.

Azula scoffs softly and emerges from the crevasse in the wall. "They're white circles that glow."

Ty Lee cannot hide her giggle, and Zuko's cheeks burn with jealousy. He grabs her by the hand and pulls her into a deep kiss, mere feet away from Azula.

Ty Lee pulls away to catch her tea that almost spilled. She looks up and catches sight of Azula bitterly walking away.

Zuko kisses her cheek but she cannot peel her eyes away from her huffy ex-girlfriend now sitting on the sofa with her arms crossed.

Mai walks into the room while listening halfheartedly to Iroh discuss his latest chess tournament. He won by a landslide, of course.

She notices immediately how Ty Lee gazes at the not-so-subtly pouting Azula. Zuko may be holding Ty Lee, but a blind twelve year old would see the truth in her eyes.

Love and a cough cannot be concealed. Even a small love. Even a small cough.

And tonight, for the first time, Ty Lee does not even seem to be bothering to cover her mouth.

[X]

The night continues rather peacefully until the alarm begins to ring.

Someone must be at the door.

A chill runs up Azula's spine as she rises to follow Iroh, Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko to the camera well hidden from the sight of the door.

Azula glances around as she hears murmurs or fear from her family and former friends. The mansion is large and labyrinthine. If someone got in, they could escape quite well.

"Uncle, kill all the lights," whispers Azula.

Slowly, he turns to her, and then types in a code on his security system, plunging them into utter darkness and the screen showing the doorstep becomes blindingly clear to all.

Three heavily, heavily armed and armored purgers in masks stand out on the doorstep.

One taps on the camera and then presses the intercom button.

"Mr. Shinohai, we didn't know you were planning to have any guests," he mockingly drawls as he slowly removes his mask.

Azula shoves her brother aside to get a better look at the security camera. Her eyes widen. "I recognize him. They're not purgers; they're the Anti-NFFA. I don't suppose they care that you retired, uncle."

The metal grinds. The security system fails. The door smashes open and Ty Lee screams. Mai grabs Ty Lee and pulls her away from gunfire, and Ty Lee hastily returns the favor by shoving Mai to the ground. Zuko seizes Azula and drags her across the room.

They run as fast as they can through the pitch black darkness and end up split up into different hiding places. The revolutionaries have no idea where they are, and do not know the gigantic house. The inhabitants have the advantage, save for being completely unarmed and terrified.

Everyone is afraid to breathe as the revolutionaries call out for Iroh, snapping curse words, firing at lamps just to startle the inhabitants of the house with the noise.

After a few moments of dread, the security system arms itself again.

But instead of locking any possible intruders outside, it now locks the survivors and the three Anti-NFFA revolutionaries inside.

[X]

The darkness helps. The small number of intruders helps. Somehow, after navigating around the revolutionaries trashing the house looking for their target, the group manages to quietly gather in a singular location in the den. Iroh jumps into action, turning to Zuko. They can still hear the footsteps, the calls of Iroh's name, the gunfire and smashes. But the shadows have helped them more than it helped the sloppy revolutionaries.

"All of you hide upstairs," whispers Iroh. "I need to get my weapons from the basement."

"Uncle, I'm not letting you go alone," hisses Zuko.

"Go protect your unborn child," Iroh orders, gently pushing his nephew towards Ty Lee.

She grabs Zuko's hand, and he resigns.

The pounding of the Anti-NFFA footsteps urges them to escape such an open space.

[X]

The star stickers on Lu Ten's ceiling no longer glow. Zuko remembers staring at them at night when the family gathered here, before they were broken. They were bright green once, and he never admitted it to anyone but he was afraid of the dark back then.

They barricaded themselves in with whatever furniture they could lift. Maybe it will not be enough. Maybe it will.

"This is a good a place to die as any, I guess," sighs Mai as she finishes putting up the last of the barricade.

And so they settle in anxiously to wait for the promised weapons, the whole while listening to the Anti-NFFA destroy whatever they can in order to frighten their victims.

Zuko turns to Azula as they sit against the wall below the window. They both slowly look away from Ty Lee, whom currently clings to Mai for support.

Zuko whispers, a fresh anger in his eyes that Azula notices to her bewilderment, "I know Ty Lee. I know how she is. I know she still loves you. But she chose me and I chose her. So you? I don't get what you're trying to do and I don't like it."

Azula scowls and sneers and scoffs. "I'm not trying to do anything. I can't love someone who betrayed me like she did and so your insecurity is your business and your problem, not mine. I don't love her. I will never love her again and you better accept that."

Zuko drops the subject.

But the lady doth protest too much.

**SNOW (12:01 AM, MARCH 22nd)**

The quartet has been in silence for a long time. The Anti-NFFA revolutionaries have become eerily quiet, but the mansion remains locked down with them, armed with grenades, assault rifles, pistols and God knows what else.

Abruptly breaking the lengthy silence, "Fuck fuck fuck," whispers Azula as she peers out the window through the dark spring snowfall.

"What?" quietly ask three voices almost in unison.

"Five more," is all she can manage as she looks at the Anti-NFFA in their snowy white body armor and powerful weapons. They advance on the house to join the three already here.

Now they are outnumbered, and while it did not seem possible, the situation has officially become much more dire.

"What do we do?" asks Ty Lee, daring to lock eyes with Azula. Her voice becomes more shrill with every word. "Iroh should be here with the weapons by now. What do we do?"

Azula rises to her feet and with the posture and intonation of a dragon empress orders, "We go get those damn weapons ourselves before those seven organize for an attack."

No one argues with her.

They just silently get to work dismantling the barricade.

[X]

The quartet tries to take the most winding and deceptive routes through the dark manor, and at last reach the final stretch leading to their abandoned weapons.

Unfortunately, that is exactly where the backup Anti-NFFA just convened with the original three, forming a barricade between the quartet and their only hope of escape.

"The old man is harder to kill than we thought."

"Rich pigs in these fucking mansions," spits a gruff voice from behind a snowy white helmet graffittied with Anti-NFFA slogans.

"What do want do about the kids?"

One of the Anti-NFFA snorts. "What do you think? We end them."

"They're not kids. I guarantee you they've killed enough innocents to earn whatever we give them."

The quartet communicates silently. For now, their former weapons are off limits for the time being. They start up the hushed rush through the mansion again, seeking out the basement, seeking out Iroh and his promised stash of weapons.

[X]

Two assault rifles. A dated pistol. A half-dented machete. Mai should have expected this to be a pacifist's idea of an arms stash.

But she does not have time to complain. The door bursts open and heavy boot-steps clomp rapidly down the creaky, winding stairs.

The smoke grenade goes off.

Azula seizes Ty Lee and pins her down to protect her. Mai draws the pistol but cannot get a clear shot.

Iroh tackles Zuko as the bullets begin to fly. And after a panicked moment, j feels his uncle become heavy and limp over his body.

His heart leaps into his throat. The smoke slowly becomes easier to cope with as the Anti-NFFA advance on Mai and are met by such resistance that they become wholly occupied with the solitary powerful young woman.

"Uncle!" calls Zuko into the void. He sits up and Iroh rolls from him, gasping for breath, blood dripping from his chapped lips. "Uncle. No, no, no, no. Stay here. Stay with me."

"You need to go," says Iroh, a fierce gleam in his slowly dying eyes. "You need to survive. Protect them. Protect yourself. You are capable of so much more than you believe."

He reaches up and touches Zuko's face, leaving a smear of blood before he looks at his nephew once more.

"Say hi to Lu Ten for me," whispers Zuko through his tears.

And that brings a weak and fleeting smile to Iroh's face as he passes through the veil of tears into whatever afterlife awaits.

Ty Lee shoves Azula off of her and starts to run towards Zuko before an Anti-NFFA rebel grabs her and she becomes caught in a fistfight.

Mai runs out of bullets and starts to try to defend herself with the machete.

Azula is the only one who makes it to her brother, whose body shakes and shudders with sobs as he clings tightly to his uncle.

It reminds Azula of something her mother said once, during the aftermath of the Second Annual Purge.

The dead are not what is chilling. The dead are silent. It is the survivors who scream and cry and cling.

She grabs her brother by the arm as Mai and Ty Lee narrowly escape the fight and dash to join them.

Zuko shakes Azula off as he clings tighter to Iroh and screams and cries and breaks.

Azula grabs him and pulls as hard as she can.

"Zuko, he's gone. He's gone. We have to get out of here!" cries Azula as she peels her brother away from the corpse. They run only a few feet before Zuko breaks down.

Ty Lee touches his hand and he pushes her away. Azula tries to figure out what to say to keep him going as the heavy footsteps and taunts of the Anti-NFFA come closer and closer.

And maybe in that moment Mai earns her leadership.

She decks him. Right in the face.

"Pull yourself together!" She passionately shouts as she unclenches her fist and shakes off the pain in her knuckles from the brutal collision. Her display of emotion stuns him so much that he immediately obeys. She says, "You two know the house. Where do we go?"

"The games closet," declares Azula breathlessly, gesturing loosely to the nearby dusty stairs.

"The what?" demands Mai.

"It's up in a concealed part of the attic. I used to hide in there. Follow me." Azula waves towards the staircase and turns to start heading towards it.

They run.

**LUXURY (12:40 AM, MARCH 22nd)**

As the quartet hides in the cramped but luxurious closet filled with strategy games of various expensive brands and builds, the situation seems far from hopeful.

They are in utter, icy silence until Mai uncomfortably whispers to Zuko, "Sorry I punched you in the face."

Zuko just flashes a crooked smile through his wretched tears. "Happens more often than you would think."

Ty Lee turns to Mai. Slowly, Azula does the same.

Breathlessly, Ty Lee inquires, "What next?"

Mai says, "Well, we certainly don't have the luxury of hiding forever. We have to get out of the house somehow."

Azula scoffs and, agape for a moment, says, "These people are well-equipped. They have a plan. We don't. We have three rifles and a pistol with two bullets in it, and we're in party clothes and heels. They have grenades and body armor. What exactly do you suggest, supreme leader?"

Mai's eyes are made of steel as she says, "We fight our way out."

"This is hardly the time to battle a superior force," hisses Azula, teeth bared. But her display of aggression does not faze Mai in the slightest.

"It's exactly the time," replies Mai calmly. "We don't have a choice, and they made it clear they didn't know we'd be here tonight."

Azula shakes her head with a huff out. Zuko starts standing up, in complete agreement with Mai. But Azula? Azula does not know if she can do this.

Sensing that, Ty Lee takes Azula's hand in hers.

Azula thoughtlessly squeezes once before quickly remembering herself and prying away her ex-girlfriend.

But she does turn to Mai.

Azula rolls her shoulders and sighs exasperatedly. Then she straightens up and says, "I'm in, but we need to come up with a damned good plan if we're going to fight our way out, so all of you shut up and listen to me."

Ty Lee smiles to herself.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR  
**

**BAD KIDS (11:30 PM, MARCH 21st)**

Azula begins her plan by pressing the intercom button beside the shelf of various quartz and precious stone chess sets. Iroh has one in every room, just like his brother and father.

"Hello? Hello? This is Azula Shinohai."

It takes painstaking, breathless, sweaty moments before it crackle and a response comes.

"Yes, rich bitch?" answers a crackling, gruff voice.

"We heard you talking earlier. You're right. We're not kids. We are the bad kids your parents warned you about. We have killed innocents. All four of us have participated in private purges."

"You're a lousy salesman if you're trying to save your skin."

Azula ignores the insult. "I propose a wager. Let the hunter become the hunted. Participate in your own private purge, with us rich bitches as your targets."

"And you gain what from that?"

"I can only hope my friends and I can defeat you one at a time, and therefore, with all of you dead, at least one of us will survive and escape. I have faith in my comrades. Do you have faith in yours?"

After a short silence, he at last commands, "Give us the first contestant. Decide who's playing first and decide fast."

Immediately, Ty Lee declares, "I'll go."

"You're pregnant!" argues Zuko, fire lighting in his eyes at the very suggestion.

Ty Lee frowns. "I'm also a black belt."

"Azula has the best chance of winning," says Mai, gesturing loosely at her former best friend.

Azula huffs and states viciously, "Azula is not a _distraction. _Azula is the one working on getting us out of here while they're busy playing their stupid economy class version of a private purge."

Mai sees what needs to happen. Time for leadership mode. She hates leadership mode. "Zuko, you help Azula with her stupid plan. Ty Lee, stay out of their way. I've got this."

Zuko hisses, his lips contorted into an expression of passionate rage, "No. Mai, you help Azula with her plan and protect Ty Lee. I'll do a better job this time than last time at being a distraction."

"You can't possibly do any worse than last time," snarks Azula. "I agree with my brother. I work better with Mai, anyway."

But Ty Lee protests, "Zuko, you're more wounded than all of us and you're thrown off by losing your uncle! Maybe on another day you'd be a match for them but not today!"

"I promised my uncle I would protect you three! You _Four!"_

"Mai! Azula!" helplessly pleads Ty Lee.

They avert their eyes, neither willing to make the sacrifice and go in his place.

Zuko stiffens, takes a deep breath, and accepts his fate. He always has been decent at fighting; Ozai started taking him and Azula to the MMA gym before they could walk.

He knows this is the noble and honorable choice, and nothing has ever been more important to him than his honor.

Zuko straightens up. Mai offers him the rifle, the only useful gun, but he waves his hand.

"You may need it more than I do," she says softly, something close to sympathy in her eyes.

No one says it but they all know what he implies; he does not think he will make it out alive.

Wordlessly, Ty Lee grabs the pistol that probably lacks enough ammunition to save a life. She hands it to him and he nods.

After a few deep breaths, Zuko walks to the door and leaves.

Ty Lee turns to her two former best friends.

"Let me say goodbye to him," she begs, tears glistening in her protuberant eyes.

No one says anything but no one stops her from running out the door either.

"Ty-" Zuko begins.

She embraces him and whispers in his ear, "Do you love me?"

"Yes."

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"Then don't stop me from doing what I'm about to do."

Ty Lee shoves Zuko back, kisses him, and shuts the door in his face, running to the stairwell before anyone can stop her.

Zuko stands there, too stunned to pursue her. He never thought she would do that. Never thought Ty Lee loved him enough for a sacrifice like this.

And never thought he wouldn't be able to prevent it. Never thought anything in the world would allow him to place her in harm's way.

He starts running but Azula and Mai leap into action, grabbing him and dragging him back as he fights desperately against them.

"She doesn't deserve this!" he screams, flailing and fighting.

"We know," says Mai, trying and succeeding at holding back tears of pain and terror.

She also knows things happen whether you deserve them or not.

"We do have to save her, but I'm not letting you run in there like an idiot so you can ruin our escape," says Azula.

"I'll get her," states Mai decisively. "I'll get her back."

"Mai, she's my fiancé! She took my place!" cries out Zuko as Azula continues to pin his arms down and hold him back.

Mai whips around as she steadies the rifle in her hands. "First of all, she's my best friend. Second of all, you two are being little overemotional bitches like always and it's going to make you do something stupid. I'm getting her, while you two stay here and behave yourselves. I'm the leader and this isn't a democracy so shut the fuck up and let me do this."

And they do.

God help them, they do.

[X]

Zuko never understood his sister. To him, she was another country he would need a passport to visit, and the flights were perpetually cancelled.

But he understands her eyes right now, even though he sees something in them he never before has. Perhaps that is why he can understand her. Because the look in her eyes is human.

Azula says, "She'll be fine. We have to stay here."

"What do you mean _she'll be fine_?" hisses Zuko.

"She's strong and tough. Mai is too. They'll make it out of this."

"I can see the look in your eyes. Like you're never gonna see her again."

Azula hates how he speaks to her enough to raise her tone and spit violently, "Maybe not! Maybe it's a sacrifice we have to make tonight!"

He knows she doesn't mean her words but, still, a bitterness and putrid rage surges through him like someone shot it into his veins with a syringe.

"This is my fiancée we're talking about!" he roars, going from ten to one hundred in a split second after she suggested it would be remotely okay for them to sacrifice Ty Lee.

Azula shouts in his face, advancing on him with each breath she takes between words, "I know who she is! And I have known her and cared about her a lot longer than you! And if she dies because of you I will kill you before dawn!"

"If she dies, I'll let you."

He means it.

[X]

After about fifteen minutes, Mai makes it down the stairs ane through the house towards the sound of screaming and fighting with the one useful gun they found when in Iroh's basement.

Ty Lee is tough. Mai knows that. They were the bad kids in school, always in fights, always up to some scheme, always the most popular and talked about girls in school thanks to it.

And Ty Lee was always best at it. Half the time Mai just held the camera.

She hears the distinct sound of a violent scuffle as she quietly sneaks down the stairs.

Mai moves faster and then walks into the room where Ty Lee finishes a fast fistfight with a few quick punches, smashes a lamp over the man's head when he starts to throw better punches. He is going at her wild, and Ty Lee never goes wild in a fight, even tonight.

She shoves him to the ground, sets her high heel on his throat, presses until he chokes, then kneels down and snaps his neck.

Mai almost asks where the others might be so she can help until she is torn enough from her stunned staring at that fight and Ty Lee to see the corpses littering the floor.

She did not use a single bullet. The men all died of snapped necks.

Maybe being the bad kids was not so bad after all.

Or so she was thinking, until she hears bounding footsteps down the stairs and approaching behind her. She spins around, gun pointed at the source of the sound, until she sees that that footsteps belong to Azula and Zuko.

Mai sighs. "I knew I couldn't trust you two to stay."

Before they can protest, one man they thought was dead groans, and then sets a mesh bag beside him. He presses a button on the metal box in it.

It starts to blink.

It certainly is not a permitted weapon tonight.

"Bomb!" screams Azula.

It is the last thing they hear before the deafening bang and the rain of fire and stone.

**HOMEWRECKER (11:45 PM, MARCH 21st)**

It hurts worse than anything Azula has ever felt in her entire life.

Is she dead?

No. No one dead could feel this tired and pained.

She hears a loud groan that she recognizes and she immediately gets to work freeing herself from the furniture and wood that collapsed on her. Her body hurts like it never before has in her entire life, but she hobbles forward and begins helping Ty Lee free herself from the sofa that flipped onto her.

"Is my baby okay?" croaks Ty Lee.

"I don't know. But you are," says Azula, helping Ty Lee to her feet.

The slice of a knife cries out in the deafening sound of a breaking house. Ty Lee and Azula tense up and start to move into a fighting stance before they see Mai wriggling out of her trap.

Once all three are steady on their feet, the follow the shouts of pain to Zuko.

Ty Lee starts tearing at wood before anyone can stop her. He helps her free him, but lies on the ground still.

"Is something broken?" Ty Lee whispers.

"N…" He is in perfect health physically, but his mind runs wild.

"Get up!" snaps Azula.

"What's wrong?" pleads Ty Lee as Zuko bursts into hysterics.

"It's the last of him! This house is the last of him and it's _gone_!" roars Zuko through his tears.

The rubble rumbles around them. The bomb still has a toll to take on this ancient mansion.

Azula gnashes her teeth and shouts in her brother's ruddy face, "You fucking expired coupon, stop blubbering about Uncle and get your ass in gear!"

She seizes her brother, and with the help of Mai and Ty Lee, they escape the burning manse.

They run. Run like they never have before.

[X]

Azula can remember the slow, smoldering sex like it was yesterday.

She no longer feels anger, although she feigns it. She only feels loss. And loss? Loss is a far more difficult emotion to cope with than rage.

But she will find no solace tonight, amongst the ruins of a crippled empire with nothing good to its name but this damned annual tradition they dare call a holiday.

All she can do is run and stumble, trying to ignore the pain of her bruises and cuts and torn insides. Just like the ones she foolishly allied herself with tonight.

Mai and her cold brutality, her façade of control on a night with none to be found. Zuko and his paranoid possession of a woman who no longer loves him, and maybe never loved him. Ty Lee trying to protect a baby for a future she does not even want.

Azula pretending that the past cannot hurt her anymore.

All they should care about tonight is survival, but with deep and damaged bonds, they will never see the light of day again if they cannot control their broken minds.

How sad and strange the four of them are.

They run.

They stumble.

They ache.

They bleed.

They run.

[X]

At long last, they find shelter, although after their experiences tonight they doubt it will last very long. But they can enjoy it as long as it lasts.

It is a pool house. Unguarded, but unnoticeable thanks to the tall fence and the looming trees.

"I'll stand watch," says Zuko. No one protests as he takes the sole useful gun from Mai and steps outside. He shuts the door behind him.

Mai starts taking inventory of anything in this shed that could be useful.

Azula slowly turns to Ty Lee.

They lean weakly against the dirty, chlorine-scented wall in silence for some time before Azula at last murmurs, "Even after you abandoned me in that Sephora, I kept… a lot of your things."

"Do you still have them?" asks Ty Lee, eyes widening with hope. Hope she knows is wrong when she is engaged to marry someone else.

"No," coolly lies Azula.

Ty Lee rubs her lips together in pain and concern before whispering, "Why?"

"I found they were keeping me from fully embracing my new life without you."

"What did you do with them?"

"I burned them," lies Azula. "And I felt liberated. I knew I was finally done."

Tears sting Ty Lee's eyes as Azula speaks those last two sentences.

"Oh," is all she can muster.

Azula looks away.

She burned them, hits Ty Lee. Fire.

For three years Ty Lee has dreamed of nothing but the fire that prompted Mai and Ty Lee escaping the Sephora without Azula. Leaving Azula there to burn.

Trees burned, buildings burned, it all burned.

The sugary smoke settled in Ty Lee's hair as she slept. It left a scent of ash on her pillow.

It is only fitting that Azula burned Ty Lee's things after Ty Lee left Azula herself to burn.

The silence lingers endlessly.

[X]

When Azula takes her place on watch, twenty minutes later, Ty Lee and Zuko lean against the same wall Ty Lee was on when she spoke to Azula. It makes her feel… dirty, for some reason.

She holds his hand as they stay silent for even longer than between she and Azula.

But at long last, "What if tonight is the last night of your life?" suggests Zuko. "Am I really the one you want to spend it with?"

"Tonight has been Hell. But y'know what? I wouldn't have it any other way," replies Ty Lee right before softly kissing his bloody cheek.

Zuko smiles.

Ty Lee's stomach churns.

He isn't.

He isn't the one with whom she wants to spend tonight.

**IMMORTAL (1:15 AM, MARCH 22nd)**

Ty Lee stands watch now, and the pool house becomes silent in her absence.

Zuko lurks in the corner, lost in thought.

He is not the fool his sister and father always claimed he was.

He heard Ty Lee's voice in the pool house where they now sit in a tired circle.

He felt the difference in her kiss.

Zuko knows she loved him. Zuko knows she wanted to marry him, to have a baby together.

But tonight she clearly fell back into Azula's spell.

And Azula ensnared Ty Lee so tightly that Zuko wonders if he can ever reclaim the love of his life.

While Zuko thinks of Ty Lee, Azula thinks of her mother.

The last gift she ever gave her, of all things to think about tonight. For her mother's birthday. Azula stole flowers from the boarding school garden with Ty Lee and Mai at her side.

She made a bouquet of peonies, basil and purple hyacinth. She thought it was perfect. Spoke to her, somehow. Spoke to their poor relationship.

It died in the mail.

For the first time Azula can remember since her mother died, she misses her.

Zuko and his damned emotional speech in Iroh's bathroom. It churned up feelings Azula buried a very long time ago.

Azula never said goodbye at the hospital. Her parents were separated. She lived with Ozai and she never visited until the day her mother's prognosis was looking grave.

She was too afraid to look. She was too afraid to see what cancer had done to the woman who she loved and hated. The woman who rejected her, and Azula rejected her in return.

But Zuko stayed by her side until the end.

Azula liked to think her mother hated her enough to not even think of her after Azula chose Ozai.

But her dying words were of her daughter.

Azula wonders who her dying words will be of.

[X]

Ty Lee bursts in halfway through her watch and quietly slides the door shut behind her. But the look of terror in her protuberant eyes belies her silent movements.

"We have a problem," she whispers urgently.

Everyone snaps to attention.

"What?" asks Mai.

"The family just left their house. They know we're here and they have weapons."

All three rush to the sliding door to peer out at the imminent threat.

It is true. Large men, a woman. Baseball bats, blades, gleaming in the moonlight.

"What do we do?" whispers Ty Lee frantically.

"We should just fortify the area until morning and keep them out."

But they are far from daylight and all know it.

"They think we're robbers! Or worse! We don't have _time_!"

"We need to keep moving. It's how I survived. It's the only way I survived."

The shadowy figure wielding a baseball bat moves closer and closer, now accompanied by a teenage boy and a young woman holding a shotgun.

"If they're leaving the locked house in a Purge they mean business. Just go. Go!"

The surprising urgency in Mai's voice sets them in motion at high speed despite weariness and debilitating wounds.

Even Azula would admit that she was the best choice for a leader after all.

[X]

Zuko stops for breath first, even though he has the strongest lungs of them all. He beat Azula at breath holding contests in their pool since they were children and was an excellent swimmer and runner in high school.

But the three girls have all noticed how truly distracted and unhinged he has become since losing Iroh and nearly losing Ty Lee back in that mansion.

He does not seem much like himself anymore.

Ty Lee touches his arm as the girls stop with him, grateful for the brief break.

"What's wrong?"

He turns to her and despite speaking softly does not hold back his anger. "I know you still love Azula. I know you want her because I know you."

"And _I _know _you_. I know you and I love you!" insists Ty Lee fervently.

"When I dated you I thought I was so lucky. Because I love you. I love you so much that I was okay with having you for as long as you or Azula let me."

"Zuko, it's not like that."

"Don't," he snarls.

"I thought I was over her. I chose you! I really mean it when I say I thought our love would be immortal. I still do. I still do!"

"You don't. You were wrong. I guess we both were wrong."

Azula strides between them to face Zuko, interrupting the conversation by purring, "Maybe she had a moment of clarity. She has too much self respect to settle for sloppy seconds."

Zuko cannot stop himself from punching her square in the jaw. Azula immediately punches him back, knocking him off balance before he quickly steadies himself.

The physical fight violently escalates as Ty Lee and Mai stand stunned, until they both gasp for breath and slowly pull away from each other.

Zuko roars, "She loves me! I love her! And I have enough honor in me that I would never even _think _about twisting this fucked up night into an opportunity to _steal _her!"

"Is that what you call honor? Using my pain from the betrayal I faced, the nightmare I have yet to recover from, to take the girl I loved? You_ stole _your slimy chance like a greedy, undignified bastard and I can't even express how long I have wanted to tell you that."

Zuko's face burns white hot and his expression contorts with rage. Azula just smirks.

As soon as he raises his fist and she slides back into her fighting stance, "This isn't a game and I'm not a prize!" cries out Ty Lee in utter desperation.

The siblings freeze in place and turn to look at her.

Mai simply says, "Let's move."

They both obey, but not without simmering rage within.

[X]

Finally, they reach the outskirts of the suburbs, still not safe, but safer than the city. But they are all weak, and dehydrated, and sore.

"We won't make it much longer," says Azula and everyone squirms slightly, even Mai, for they know it is true. "But see that little plaza. The grocery store looks empty."

She points a shaking hand.

Zuko protest weakly, "I wouldn't trust anything tonight. How do you know it's empty?"

"I don't. It just looks that way. I can go in and do some reconnaissance and then, if I can, get supplies. We won't survive without them. You three stay and hide until I get back."

Zuko is fine with that. So is Mai. But Ty Lee steps forward.

"No. You need to stay with us. We need you. We need you if we're going to live. You can't abandon us when you're the only one who survived a night being out during the Purge."

"Don't try to guilt trip me. I have no heart so it doesn't work," says Azula.

"Azula, please. Don't go. Don't do this to me, to us."

"Why do you care if I go or not?"

"Because I still love you!" shouts Ty Lee, not giving a damn that her fiancé hears it. "And I will _always _love you!"

After a brief moment of tense silence, Azula grabs her and kisses her so fiercely Ty Lee thinks she may faint.

"We all go. Together," Ty Lee whispers before repeating herself loud enough for Mai and Zuko to also hear.

"I agree," says Azula.

"Strength in numbers," remarks Mai with a lazy nod.

"I'm not going on a suicide mission for any of you!" Zuko barks. Done. He is done. At this moment, he is utterly done.

Azula taunts the bull with her rational statement. "We need to get the supplies if we're going to survive the night and we can't afford to be separated again. That never seems to go well."

"I'm not going in there to die just because you told me to," snarls Zuko.

Azula smirks. "Don't bite off more than a coward like you can chew, ZuZu. Shut up and obey me before I take more than your woman."

He does not think.

Not a single thought crosses his mind as he draws his weapon from his trousers.

The gun trembles in his shaky hand as he straightens his back and shifts his aim to point directly between Azula's mascara-stained eyes.

This will be it.

This will be the revenge he deserves.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

**LUCKY (1:25 AM, MARCH 22nd)**

"Don't call me a coward," snarls Zuko, the gun as steady in his hand as two high school sweethearts. But Azula does not show one single sign of fear.

She steps forward, not back, and purrs smoothly, "Killing me won't make you brave. It will make you a traitor."

"A traitor?" Zuko snorts as he cocks the gun. Ty Lee flinches. Azula does not.

"You promised our mother you would protect me," his sister continues.

"That was a long time ago." Zuko grinds his teeth. "Things change."

Azula steps forward again, several steps this time. He does not falter, but neither does she. She presses her forehead right to the barrel of the gun until it indents her skin.

"No!" cries out Ty Lee, but her loves ignore her.

"Do it. Do it. I dare you," says Azula.

"I will," he insists, but he is starting to open his eyes to what he is doing, how he would not be a traitor to Ursa or Iroh but to himself. This is not him. This is not who he is.

But he does not move the gun an inch.

"Zuko! Please!" screams Ty Lee before Mai hurriedly covers her mouth. She whispers in Ty Lee's ear that interfering will only make this worse.

"You won't pull the trigger," says Azula, shrugging. The gun presses harder against her forehead.

"You would."

"You're right. I would. But you're not like me."

He hesitates as he remembers who he is and realizes what he is doing. Pain, remorse, shame, all of it hits him like a punch in the gut.

As his hand falters, Azula grabs the gun in one Swift move and drops it to the ground.

Mai snaps, "There's a live round in there, you dumb bitch."

To Ty Lee that seems like a bit of an underreaction. Or maybe Mai just suspected it would eventually come to this. Being entirely honest, Ty Lee did too, as much as she hoped otherwise.

"Azula…" says Zuko, but he does not know how to explain himself.

"Don't. Let's just go get the supplies we need." She waves her hand dismissively and he says nothing more.

Yet, while the siblings may have done the closest to an apology they ever have, Ty Lee's gut feeling of unease only rises in her chest.

[X]

The grocery store is empty, just as Azula predicted. There is not even evidence of looting. This plaza seems to be fairly untouched and all four of them cannot help but think they have a decent shelter for once.

But none of them dare truly hope.

"This may not last all night," says Azula, something her companions already know and fear. "But we have food, water, caffeine, medical supplies. We need to stock up and get some rest if we are going to make it until morning."

"The pharmacy in the back probably is a decent place to hole up. It'll have some kind of defenses for preventing robbery," adds Mai.

They follow Mai's advice and go to the back of the small grocery store to find the pharmacy first.

Most of it is disabled but some of the protections and locks still work.

They get lucky. This store may manage to give them shelter until morning comes.

They ran out to grab food, water, a few medical supplies and three energy drinks, and then lock themselves inside.

**ALL YOU NEVER SAY (2:45 AM, MARCH 22nd)**

The silence in the pharmacy has been agonizing.

Ty Lee toys with her torn dress as she sits beside Mai. Zuko and Azula remain on opposite sides of the room, lost in space mentally. Zuko eats Oreos, Azula is dazed and half asleep from a painkiller, Ty Lee and Mai want to talk to each other but don't know what to say. It all used to be so much easier.

Ty Lee turns to the best friend she lost three years ago and regained tonight, and softly remarks, "It's hard, y'know? To love just one person. To choose who we love."

"I wouldn't know the feeling."

Ty Lee tries to remember something, any little fact to help bring them together, to continue the conversation. She finally inquires, "How did things turn out with Jet, anyway?"

Mai dryly replies, "Poorly, as usual. He proposed to me, the fucking idiot, and I said no, of course. Last I heard of him he was advertising for someone to kidnap me during the next Purge but he deleted it after two hours up."

"I guess you're still good enough at breaking hearts to inspire revenge fantasies." Ty Lee laughs.

Mai almost smiles.

"Yeah."

Silence.

Ty Lee takes a slow breath and looks up to make eye contact with Mai. "I'm sorry I ditched you after the mall thing."

"I don't blame you. You knew what I did."

"It was an accident."

"That doesn't make it any better."

Ty Lee grabs Mai by the wrist and insists quietly but fervently, "Well, I think it does. And I think I missed being your friend a lot. I can't count how many times I saw something that reminded me of you and wanted to text you or call you so bad but I was too scared."

Mai has a thousand words to say, a thousand faces to make, a thousand tears to cry.

But she remains cold and quiet and statuesque.

"Same here," she summarizes.

Ty Lee beams.

Mai just sits with Ty Lee for a long while in comfortable, painless silence, half a smile creeping ever so slowly onto her pale, chapped lips.

[X]

Fifteen minutes later, Mai sits down beside Zuko and gestures at his Oreos.

"Can I have one?" she asks and he nods.

"Help yourself."

"Thanks." She picks one up, examines it, unscrews it and licks off the frosting from the inside.

Zuko sets down the one he was eating and remarks, "I'm amazed you haven't snapped yet. It's really cool how you've held us all together tonight."

"Yeah. You guys owe me a lot." Mai slyly smiles for a fast flicker of a second.

"We do," sincerely replies Zuko, chomping down on another Oreo. She takes a second for herself, stacking the discarded and damp chocolate slices beside her on the dirty floor.

"You haven't done so bad yourself," says Mai in earnest. "Your uncle, Ty Lee, you've lost a lot in a few hours and you're still fighting."

Zuko's eyes passionately flash. "I haven't lost Ty Lee. Not yet."

Mai ignores the fact that he is wrong and says, "I always thought if you ended up with one of us it would be me. I had such a dumb crush on you as a kid."

"Not an appropriate time to hit on me, Mai."

"I'm not hitting on you. I swear."

"Oh really?"

Mai stifles a laugh. "I'm not interested in you in that way."

"What way?" asks Zuko, feigning offense.

"Pick one."

Zuko chuckles and eats another Oreo in one bite. "It's fine. I know I'll be with Ty Lee watching the sunrise together in no time. I'm not offended."

"I hope you get her back." Mai sits on her haunches and sighs. "I have too much time to think about the past tonight. Something about all the death just makes me think about all the times I never really lived."

"And that makes you think of me why?"

"Because I was so sucked into Azula's game that I never broke her rules. I probably should have. At least a few times." Mai does not know what came over her. She never has told anyone that before, but it has weighed on her for longer than she can remember.

"It must be nice for you to be bossing her around after all that time as her minion."

Mai bristles but carefully conceals her sudden anger. "I'm not bossing anyone around. I'm just the only person here with enough mental stability to keep our asses alive."

"Do you still care about her?"

Mai silently shakes her head. "I don't care about anything or anyone. It's easier that way."

Zuko does not argue with her, even though he knows she is lying.

[X]

Across the room from Mai and Zuko's cookie feast, Ty Lee takes her bloody, bruised hand and rests her head on Azula's shoulder.

Softly, she asks, "Do you remember when we first met?"

"Gymnastics. Second grade."

Ty Lee gushes, eyes sparkling at the happy memory on a sad night, "It was like fate that made me talk to you. I saw you and you were so pretty and talented and confident and I just _knew _you were going to be my friend."

"And I saw how much you admired me, so of course I accepted." Azula smirks.

"I never really imagined I'd fall in love with you later, but maybe I should've."

"Maybe you shouldn't have."

"Do you still think we would be better as strangers?"

Azula shrugs. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"I want things to go back to how they were," whispers Ty Lee weakly.

Azula frowns. "After tonight, I don't even know what I want."

"I know what you want."

"Really?" mocks Azula.

But Ty Lee remains serious, sincere and unwaveringly brave.

"You don't want to be alone anymore."

The only response Azula can give is to touch two fingers under Ty Lee's chin and claim her lips.

And in that kiss, for a moment, everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

**DETAILS (3:15 AM, MARCH 22nd)**

Before her death of cancer, Ursa Shinohai hated this night. Even though her husband was partially responsible for instating it, even though in public she said all of the right things, at home with her children while Ozai hosted his parties she was wildly vocal about how much she despised it.

Zuko went along with her. Azula argued.

But both children crept down to watch the footage of the Purge on the news while pretending to be playing. Azula was enamored by it; Zuko was mainly curious but he would admit he had his eyes glued to the screen the whole time.

They never imagined they would hate this night like their mother.

As young adults they participated in the private Purges.

Then the shopping spree incident came.

Then Zuko pulled a gun on his sister when out during the Purge for the first time.

"What color were mother's eyes?" suddenly asks Azula while she stands in the energy drink aisle with her brother. Mai stands chaperone, keeping them monitored and keeping Ty Lee out of the weigh.

Mai feigns great interest in Arizona tea while pretending to ignore their conversation.

"What?" asks Zuko, eyes wide from being taken truly aback.

"What color were her eyes?" Azula repeats, a little louder this time.

"A kind of brown hazel, I guess? You don't remember."

"I barely remember her face."

"Oh." His throat closes up as he remembers his mother. He does not want to talk about her, especially not with Azula.

"Remember when we used to play Purge?" asks Azula, grinning. Grinning. He almost laughs.

"I think that was just an excuse for us to beat each other up."

Silence.

Azula finally gets to the point. "If I didn't try to stop you, would you have pulled that trigger?"

"No."

"You sound so certain."

"It'd be a real waste of time if I spent all night trying to keep you alive just to shoot you. But do me a favor since I spared you. You're not allowed to die tonight."

"Then you aren't either. We can settle our scores in the morning."

"Deal."

"Deal."

They say no more, just gather the energy drinks and return to the hideout in the pharmacy.

[X]

The group talks about it at last, while drinking 4lokos and sitting in a circle. They had spoke only of strategy until the bubble broke. They talk about the details of the Sephora incident three years ago, for the first time since it happened.

Azula turns to Zuko after a long sip of her 4loko.

"Did Ty Lee ever tell you about that night, three years ago?" she asks and Mai and Ty Lee exchange a glance. This cannot go well.

"She doesn't like to talk about it," says Zuko, unsure how to defuse this.

"Well, allow me to educate you. We all snuck out of the party. They wanted to put us at the kiddy table anyway. We took Mai's dad's car to the mall. It was crowded with looters but we held our own and killed a couple, subdued others. We were stocked up on things would could so easily buy. We were best friends having the time of our lives. I never felt as much love for them as I did that night, laughing, happier than we'd been in a long time. Then we hit up Sephora. We got pinned down there but it looked like we could make it out. Then the fire started. It killed most of the people holding us back but fire does not take sides. I was stuck. Another gang of looters in neon masks started firing into the flames. One grabbed Mai. I got stuck in the flames. Ty Lee went for Mai, saved her from a rape and murder yes but left me. They looked back. They both looked back before they ran and left me to the fire and looters. They saved themselves."

Neither Mai nor Ty Lee can speak. The shame they have agonized over, lost sleep over, lost half their mental stability over for three long years comes out and starts to suffocate them both.

"How'd you make it out?" asks Zuko.

Azula spares the gory details of escaping the flames and burning alive looters, tearing them apart, ripping the eye from one of them, finding a hiding place until morning where she schemed of revenge against her former best friends until the sirens blared.

"I survived," says Azula, "because the fire inside of me burned stronger than the fire around me."

Ty Lee starts to reach for her hand, but changes her mind halfway through the motion.

It is not the time for love, for reconciliation, for forgiveness, for any of it.

It is just a time for remorse and pain.

[X]

Half an hour later, when supplies run low and the half-drunk hide and seek champs are still hungry, Zuko and Ty Lee stand a few feet apart in the chips and soft drinks aisle.

"Ty Lee," says Zuko, and she holds back a shudder. "Are we over?"

She does not turn around. She cannot face him. "I don't know."

"That's not a very reassuring answer." He steps towards her and she forces herself not to walk away like she so desperately wants to do.

"I'm confused tonight. I can't make good decisions and… you're the good decision. Marrying you, our baby, that's the smart choice. That's the good decision." Slowly, she turns around and looks at her fiance with tears in her protuberant eyes.

"Then make it." Zuko's fierce expression almost wins her over, but her kiss with Azula only half an hour ago lingers on her lips.

"But my feelings for… my feelings…"

"You love her, but you love me too."

"That's not true. I _love _you, but I _need _her."

A shard of ice pierces Zuko's heart. As it melts in the ensuing silence, his blood runs cold.

Half-broken but still hopeful, Zuko hands Ty Lee a heart shaped box of chocolates from the post-Valentine's Day sale bin.

"If you need time, I'll give it to you. I know you'll make the right choice in the end."

He walks away.

She crumbles.

[X]

On the other side of the store, Azula thumbs through magazines as Mai looks at school supplies for potential makeshift weapons.

Suddenly, Mai walks to her, with an expression of shame and emotion that catches Azula off guard.

"If we're going to die tonight, I need to tell you something," says Mai, and perhaps she would feel the need to tell her even if they survive.

"What is it?" dares ask Azula.

"I lit the fire. And I'm sorry. I've never stopped being sorry," she whispers.

Azula does not think she has ever heard Mai give a genuine apology for something until this moment. But it does not matter.

"Keep being sorry," is all Azula says, the flame in her gilded eyes more powerful than the blaze Mai lit three years ago.

Mai bites her lip and walks away.

[X]

Back in the pharmacy, with Mai and Zuko testing the locking systems and speaking in hushed tones, Azula cannot help but approach Ty Lee as she jealously watches her eat chocolates from a dented heart shaped box.

"Do you remember what I told you about love, back at the party?" asks Azula, hating herself more and more with every word. She wishes she were not doing this.

"Yeah. It disappoints you." Ty Lee closes the box of chocolates and licks her fingers.

"I lied. Love doesn't disappoint me."

Ty Lee lowers her hand and Azula despises how beautiful she still looks even with cherry filled chocolate all over her mouth.

"It bores you then?" asks Ty Lee, suggesting that perhaps her assumption was right.

"No." Azula averts her eyes. "It terrifies me."

"Me too," quietly admits Ty Lee.

Azula snaps up to face Ty Lee, nostrils flaring with rage. "Don't lie. Love comes easily to you."

Ty Lee just shakes her head. "Not really. Just with one person. And I think maybe that's why I can't get over you. I think that's why the first thing I did at the party was find you."

"You're engaged to my brother."

"I know. But you were the one," whispers Ty Lee. "You were the only one and you are amazing."

Azula averts her eyes.

[X]

The foursome notices the lights of vehicles nearing the plaza and snaps into action.

"Fan out," orders Mai. "Quick, quiet, grab anything we need until morning and then we bunker down back here in the pharmacy until the sirens go off. We have three minutes so move fast."

No one protests or assents, they all just sneak off in opposite directions to make sure they are stocked up, hidden, locked in, and ready to survive the night.

[X]

Azula creeps quickly through the dark medical aisle. She starts grabbing at wound care to make sure they all stay stable until morning.

The night has taken a toll on all four of them.

As she reaches for Ace bandages, a rough hand clamps over her mouth.

She shoots her elbow backwards but hits against tough armor.

As she starts to turn around to fight, moving with the flawless strength of an MMA champion, and almost manages to scream before a needle jabs into her neck.

She collapses into strong, armored male arms.

Darkness embraces her as she loses consciousness.

[X]

Zuko grabs canned food as fast as he can. He knows they have limited time before the possibility of discovery may arrive with those lights.

But he does trust in the deserted plaza and the many protections of the pharmacy.

He just has to complete his task and then he can do the honorable thing by protecting his sister, his fiancée, and Mai until seven in the morning when they can wake up from this nightmare.

The needle strikes.

As Zuko's eyelids grow heavy and the world spins beneath his feet, a masked and muscular man puts him in a headlock and then pins him against the shelf of sauces and spices.

"Ty Lee," Zuko chokes weakly through the pain of the attacker's grip. "Ty Lee, run."

As he passes out, he tries not to accept the fact that he cannot save her.

[X]

Ty Lee takes a swift and silent detour to the pickles with honey under her arm. She simply cannot stop thinking about how perfectly wonderful it would be to devour pickles dipped in honey.

It consumes her mind enough that she barely feels the prick of a needle.

When strong arms wrap around her, she kicks him in the groin and he falls to the ground.

Ty Lee readies for a punch before her arm becomes too weak to even hold up.

The floor spins beneath her and her head rolls.

Her last thought before fully blacking out is of her baby.

[X]

Mai manages to stab a pencil deeply into the gut of her attacker before the needle in her neck from behind takes her by surprise.

His scream of pain cannot comfort her now.

Her eyelids grow heavy, and darkness falls.

[X]

Mere minutes later, the four lay useless and handcuffed in the back of a van. Whatever drug these monsters injected them with leaves them all too lethargic to speak or even make the smallest movement of a finger or toe.

Caught by surprise, for the first time tonight, they lose. All they can do is look at the leader of their captors and try to work out what will become of them. He smiles back.

Then he lifts a communicator to his lips.

"We have four martyrs for the House of Horrors."


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

**COZY (4:30 AM, March 22nd)**

"Come one, come all, for our very last sale of the night. Dawn is near so don't miss out!" The loud, brazen male voice snaps the quartet out of the daze that subdued them as their captors ushered them through fences upon fences inside of a warehouse that has gone from being abandoned to becoming a theme park of violence, tents based on historical atrocities, smoke, blood, screaming, cash flowing.

They stand cuffed and still partially drugged as objects being auctioned off.

The man in charge shoves Zuko into the spotlight first.

"What we have here is an MMA champ. Want to sharpen your fighting skills? Explore our top of the line combat atmospheres? Mr. Muscles here is your guy! Play soldier! Play samurai! Play serial killer! I'm not here to control all the kinds of fun you can have with a tough chap like this young man!"

"Five thousand!"

"Ten!"

"Twenty!"

"Twenty-three!"

"Twenty-eight!" That one wins as the room becomes silent long enough to declare a winner.

The two heavily armed security guards usher Zuko from the stage to two young, strapping men in ugly camo outfits.

The auctioneer drags the three girls forward.

"Watch it," hisses Azula as he grips her arm. He ignores her.

"Three as a set! Last deal and best deal of the night! Any takers?"

"Twenty!"

"Twenty-Five!"

"Thirty!"

"Thirty-Two!"

"Seventy thousand!" calls out a confident voice. No one bids against that. The buyer strides to the stage and forking out a huge wad of cash.

Azula and Ty Lee exchange a glance of fear. But that pales in comparison to the pasty goth girl beside them.

Mai panics for the first time tonight.

"Jet," she whispers, weary eyes wide and shimmering with terror.

Her ex-boyfriend smirks and orders to the employee beside him, "Reserve the Witch Burnings room."

Azula clenches her fist so tightly that her sharp nails draw blood.

He will die.

She and her friends will not.

[X]

The three girls stand tied to stakes, wood and oil under their feet, bound in a complicated fashion. The tent surrounds them in Puritanical memorabilia and faux stone platters of torture tools. Among it all, Jet stands before them.

"Don't struggle too much," Jet advises with a twisted smirk. "If you pull down on the binds too hard it lights the fire on the stake."

"Good to know," snaps Ty Lee, sneering at him.

He turns to Mai, the focus of his night. He could not be happier that he ran into her. Jet was only in attendance to blow some inheritance money and take out some suppressed rage and then he found the woman behind that anger that follows him every day of his life.

"Cozy?" mocks Jet.

"Not really. No," coolly replies Mai.

"You humiliated me," he growls, glowering at her ferociously.

Mai snorts, pretending to be unafraid. "I made a choice. I stand by it."

He slaps her. Crack. Ty Lee flinches and Azula clenches every muscle. "You made the _wrong _choice."

"I disagree."

"Well, tonight I'm going to change your mind about that."

Mai scoffs. She averts her eyes, not dignifying him with even a glance.

"Go ahead," she says at the wood and oil at her feet. "Try."

"Look at me!" shouts Jet.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, she obeys, but with an expression of pure defiance and a bitter curl of her pale lips.

Jet starts to slowly, slowly, slowly examine the nearest platter of torture tools. All three are afraid, but not one of them even releases a single tremble. They are stronger than that.

He takes the pliers and smiles as he tears out Mai's nail, wiggling as he does it. Blood spurts from the wound as he tosses the long, wretched nail away, leaving the bed bare and bleeding.

But to his rage and irritation, she does not even wince, much less cringe.

"I've done worse with removing my fake nails," says Mai, her voice constricted by pain but still fierce and steady.

"Have you done worse with veneers?" Jet raises the pliers.

Mai freezes. Ty Lee starts to struggle before remembering that it would light the fire.

He places his thumb in Mai's mouth. She bites down. Hard. He yelps and then holds her lips open, digging the pliers into her second molar and tearing it from her mouth.

This time she gasps, swallowing a scream.

"Maybe you care about other people for once," says Jet, obviously getting more irritated by the moment. He tosses her tooth to the floor and looks for a moment at her face. She is bloody and pained but utterly unbowed. "You apparently never cared about me even though you pretended. But there's a reason I bought all three of you."

He picks up a blade, a knife in one hand and bloodied pliers in the other. Mai squeezes her eyes shut, desperately trying to hide the horrible pain of having her tooth torn from her mouth.

She spits out a wad of blood. "You want me. I wasn't even speaking to them when I broke up with you."

He pivots and grabs her hair. "You didn't break up with me. I set up a beautiful engagement in your favorite restaurant and you denied me in front of everyone there."

He tears fiercely against her hair until she lightly, barely whimpers.

Jet strides over and caresses the blade against Ty Lee's face.

He lowers it down and tears the top of her shirt.

"Jet," snarls Mai.

He ignores her and brandishes the rusty, bloody pliers.

"An eye for an eye? A tooth for a tooth?" drawls Jet, touching his blade to Ty Lee's face while holding the bloody pliers in his other hand.

"Don't you dare touch her," snarls Azula, interrupting his taunting of an angry Ty Lee.

"What are you going to do about it, princess?"

No one expects what comes in the next instant. Azula tears down on the bonds on her wrist, triggering the mechanism to light her own stake on fire. Azula screams in horrid pain as she slides down and burns the ropes from herself — along with most of her party dress — and leaps free. Her legs gleam red and her arms and back bleed, but that does not stop her from kicking him in the gut and grabbing his blade.

She lowers herself down and presses it to his throat.

"This. This is what I'm going to do about it."

She rises, straddling him, and stabs him once in the stomach. He groans in pain.

"You missed," Jet laughs, choking on his saliva from the pain.

"Oh, no, I just wanted to cripple you a little before the grand finale." She stands, grabs his foot, and slashes his tendon. He screams, and screams, eyes wide with panic. Mai and Ty Lee watch in horror, revulsion and awe.

Azula drags him to his feet and shoves him into the fire. He falls back onto the stake she left burning, howling with pain, sobbing, sobbing, sobbing as he cannot escape it due to the wound she left with his knife.

"That, you sick bastard, is what you get for fucking with me and my friends!" Azula spits over the sound of his agonized screams.

Friends. It is the first time Azula has called Mai and Ty Lee her friends in three long years. They cannot pretend they do not notice that.

Hastily, Azula uses the knife to free Mai and Ty Lee as the stench of burning flesh fills the tent. It smells like a barbeque designed for nausea, a smell they all would never forget.

They burst from the tent as it burns.

"How do we get out? What if they catch us?" gasps out Ty Lee.

Azula scoffs. "They don't care as long as they get their money, and they did. Come on. We need to find ZuZu before someone guts him."

The three girls move out on Azula's command.

**RESPECTABLE (5:15 AM, March 22nd)**

It does not take long to find Zuko in the smelly, filthy crowd, wandering through the noisy carnival of carnage with the buzz of excited conversation punctuated consistently by screams and gunfire. He would be more difficult to locate if he did not cry out their names and run to them.

"I won the fight." Pause. He glances at their expressions. "Don't act so fucking surprised. My dad wouldn't admit it but he taught me well."

Zuko's gaze catches Azula and he hastily removes his coat and places his tattered suit jacket on his sister. She hisses when it grazes across the burns on her arms but accepts the gesture that makes her look and feel far more respectable after destroying most of her already scant dress in the blaze she lit to save Ty Lee and Mai.

"They didn't look like very competent combatants," says Azula, rather than thanking him. She wishes she had not, but she does not miss the flicker of a smile on his face.

"Let's get out of here. If we stick to the crowd and keep our heads down no one can stop us. We get out on the street, find some shop or other empty place to hide in for two hours and then this night can be over."

No one argues with him, not even Azula.

[X]

As they burst into the empty, cold street from the door to the House of Horrors and start trying locked up doors for a place to hide, Mai and Azula run ahead checking for any accessible place ot hide, Ty Lee stops and freezes in place by the sewer at the edge of the sidewalk. Her eyes are glassy and she trembles with adrenaline.

Zuko gently grabs her. "It's over. Ty Lee, it's over."

"No. No." She looks at him with tears in her eyes. "_We're _over. I can't be what you want me to be."

"I don't want you to _be _anything. You want me to be something, though."

"Zuko…"

"You want me to be Azula."

Ty Lee has no words in response, and so she just slowly removes her engagement ring from her trembling, bruised fingers and pressed it into his dirty hands. He clasps it tightly.

"Maybe in a different world," whispers Ty Lee.

And they part ways.

Ty Lee goes to Azula, whom waits a few feet away near Mai, nothing holding her back now, no more reservations left.

Azula presses her lips against Ty Lee's without a second thought, unaware as she may be of the broken engagement.

The kiss anchors Ty Lee in place. Those six seconds make the stress of the life or death night vanish. Ty Lee breathes in the scent of smoke, sweat and blood and a trace of sharp Chanel perfume. And Ty Lee cannot help but wrap her arms around Azula.

"Let's move to Paris," whispers Ty Lee. "Just go there and never look back."

"Okay."

"You promise?" Ty Lee smiles faintly and gazes into Azula's golden eyes.

"I promise." She means it.

Ty Lee softly touches Azula's burned arm and she recoils in pain.

"I'm sorry. I just… thank you. Thank you."

"It isn't important."

"I love you."

Azula smirks. "I know."

Ty Lee smiles and kisses Azula on the cheek.

Mai interrupts the precious moment and rescues Zuko from his pain by announcing, "The mall is nearby and will already be broken into. It's huge so we won't get boxed in once we hide. Just about everyone will be clearing out or already gone by now. It's almost morning."

"The mall?" asks Ty Lee in a tone as if sounding out a difficult to read word.

None of them say it. They do not have to. Not a a single one of the girls have set foot in that cursed place for four years.

"It's a good bet for safety until this fucking awful night ends," says Mai.

And despite every reservation, it is decided.

**MATERIALISTIC (6:00 AM, March 22nd)**

They go back to where it all began.

The burns that agonize Azula's skin feel right at home in the Sephora where she lost everything three years ago. Mai was right about the mall being picked clean and splattered with blood but deserted by this hour. They could have found refuge anywhere, but some force drew them back between these shelves of broken makeup.

As they stand concealed while watching the clock, Ty Lee subtly pockets an Yves Saint Laurent lipstick.

When she catches sight of three sets of eyes on her she protests, "What? It's not illegal."

Azula laughs. Then Zuko. Then even Mai contributes a cool chuckle.

[X]

They keep in cover behind the counter, Azula and Mai in the middle with Ty Lee and Zuko keeping watch at either side. They do not seem to want to be close together and neither Mai nor Azula can blame them.

Azula struggles with the words she has wanted to say since she found herself tied to that stake. They stick in her throat, but they must be said. They need to come out.

Finally, quietly, angrily, bitterly, Azula at last openly admits to her ex-best friend, "I forgive you, Mai. I forgive you for lighting the fire."

"I didn't ask for your forgiveness." Mai averts her eyes.

Azula turns her chin to lock eyes with her. "You have it anyway."

Mai breaks away and rubs her lips together to keep from smiling.

[X]

The four are still on guard, blood surging with adrenaline, but half asleep when a taunting voice rouses them by exclaiming, "Hey, little robbers, come out and play!"

"Scatter," swiftly orders Mai when she sees the eight masked raiders pouring in. Scavengers, picking at what and who is left near the end of the night.

They obey. Mai and Azula rush one way, hiding behind shelves of bath products, while Zuko grabs Ty Lee and runs to the opposite end of the store.

They do not have any weapons. They are all so injured that a fight seems impossible.

But it is the last battle of the night. The sirens will ring soon and all they have to do is survive this monstrous encounter.

As the scavengers search for what they assume is competition, one finds Mai and Azula. He thinks he got lucky, but Gods is he wrong.

Azula brings him down, burns and all, and grabs both of his guns, snapping his neck with ease once she finishes. She hands one gun to Mai and keeps the other for herself.

"You go, I'll cover," breathlessly orders Mai.

"Why me?" snaps Azula.

"Don't start."

Azula sighs and then gets up, running across the room towards Zuko and Ty Lee. She shoots the woman advancing on them twice in the chest. With a few swift pulls of a trigger, Mai kills two of the scavengers while Azula grabs weapons and hands them to Zuko and Ty Lee.

"Come on," says Azula, weary, feeling the weight of her gun and knowing she has only a few shots in it to protect her exhausted, burned, broken body.

"I'll flank," says Ty Lee.

"I'll draw fire," immediately adds Zuko.

Azula wields her gun and fails at her aim each time she pulls the trigger at a raider who attacks Zuko while he draws fire. Mai takes him down in a burst until her weapon does nothing but click. Zuko draws fire away as Mai runs to join Azula and Ty Lee.

But the moment Ty Lee kills two and uses up the last of her bullets, she gasps for breath and sits down behind the shelf. Zuko makes it back to them, eight bullets left in his weapon, the only one with means of defense when their bodies are so damaged that hand to hand combat is suicide.

They dodge bullets, doing whatever they can until the leader of the scavengers barks an order.

"We're running low on time! Shut the gate. Leave them until we're done. Then we take them out and snag what they have on 'em."

As the quartet becomes more helpless and wearier by the moment, the energized scavengers pin them down. They shut the broken gate over the store. Azula's burns ache and bleed as she stares at her empty gun. Mai squeezes Ty Lee's hand. Zuko makes his choice. They are weak. They are hurt. They have only one gun with bullets left and he holds it.

"I'm going out there. I'm taking them down. Stay put until I'm done, then we go out into the mall and find somewhere else." He stares at the gun for a moment before looking up at the masked intruders emptying the shelves.

He rises. Decorated weapons point at him one by one as he begins to charge forward.

Azula grasps at him. "Zuko, no!" she cries as he starts running and shooting. "Don't do this!"

He doesn't listen.

**FAMILY (6:45 AM, March 22nd)**

One shot to the leg, one to the stomach.

That is what Zuko earned for saving them, killing their enemies, helping them make it out of the boxed in Sephora out into the open mall corridors.

Ty Lee tears from her clothes, pinning and tying as Mai keeps compression on the wounds. Azula returns a favor from earlier tonight by helping her brother walk.

They hobble through the empty hall towards the elevator, Ty Lee gently leading the way.

Once inside, Mai smashes the button for the roof with her free hand, leaving a smear of blood.

The elevator slowly but surely takes them to the roof, and they stumble out into the safety of this vast, high point above the devastated city below.

Ty Lee, a mall rat if there ever was one, comments, "I've heard the sunrise is really beautiful up here. My friends used to break in at night. They didn't steal anything. They just wandered around and came up here to drink in the morning."

Azula looks up, above burning buildings and streets of corpses. The golden sunrise is tinted pink with the bloodshed of last night.

But it is beautiful.

It really is.

"I hate orange," says Mai, and the breathless moment ends.

Azula resumes assisting her brother as Mai locks up the stairway behind them.

"We're a family again, aren't we?" remarks Ty Lee, helping Zuko sit down and staying beside him as she keeps up compression on the wounds.

"Not a very good one," replies Azula with a smirk.

"But we are one," rasps Zuko, his face contorted with pain as he speaks.

"It only took a few near death experiences," dryly comments Mai.

Both Azula and Mai flinch from shock when Ty Lee suddenly screams, "Zuko! Zuko, you gotta stay awake until we can get you an ambulance. It's just a couple more minutes."

Mai knows better, even if Azula and Ty Lee can delude themselves. Zuko may live until the sirens ring, but it could be hours before a medical team gets to this roof. He will not make it. That is a fact. Even if Mai does not want to accept it, she has.

The four of them made it this far, but they will be three sooner than they would like.

[X]

Zuko's condition deteriorates quickly.

He fades fast while sunrise quickly becomes daylight. Ty Lee keeps compression on his stomach and talks to him softly about everything and nothing. Azula tries to deal with the bullet wound on his leg, teeth bared.

Mai watches, silent, frustrated by helplessness.

And then his eyes start to flutter closed and his breath begins to rattle. Azula freezes. Ty Lee's crying intensifies by tenfold.

Ty Lee sobs, repeating again and again until the words lose meaning, "Stay with me, stay with me, stay with me…"

"I need to talk to Azula," rasps Zuko.

"I'm here," his sister whispers, crawling up and cradling his tired head.

"Take care of Ty Lee. Take care of the baby. Get them out of the country."

"You're not allowed to die, ZuZu. Stop talking like you're going to. We're keeping up the compression and in less than two minutes when those bells ring we're calling an ambulance."

"I'm going to die before then. I've accepted that. Now you accept that."

"I told you not to go out there, you dumb idiot."

"I know, but when have I ever listened to you?"

"Not once," softly says Azula.

He takes one final, rattling breath, and breathes no more. Ty Lee lets out a horrible cry and Mai shudders, turning away to hide an expression of agony. Azula, dazed, rises to her feet and steps back.

Ty Lee's hysterical, broken, shuddering sobs blend in with the sirens that signal the end of the Purge.

And Azula again thinks of what her mother used to say when she was young.

The dead are not what is chilling.

The dead are silent.

The survivors scream, and cry, and cling.

**x**

* * *

**A/N**: The happy-ish ending Tyzula-centered epilogue is ready to be posted tomorrow evening, the day of the Purge slash my birthday. Thank you all for reading; I love you so much, and I hope you enjoyed the show. Please review if you have the time; I would love to know what you think.


	7. Chapter 7

**EPILOGUE**

The Eiffel Tower sparkles on the indigo horizon. Azula gently rocks the baby in her arms as Ty Lee emerges from the claw footed bathroom in the other room. It was what sold her on the house, other than the intense security systems despite the European Union insistinting it would never even entertain the thought of a Purge.

As the last living member of the Shinohai Family, Azula's extremely sizable inheritance paid for the move and more.

"How is he doing?" asks Ty Lee, finishing tightening her petal pink robe and gently touching their baby Zuko's nose.

"Fussy, as usual," replies Azula.

Ty Lee gently takes the baby from her arms. She smiles at him warmly as Azula walks to the window and looks out at the city that has fast become familiar over the past year. She has not returned to America once since that night, not even for her own father's funeral. How could she? But it never went away. That night follows her, haunts her footsteps, shows up in the curvature of a door or a scent in the air.

Mai moved away too. Azula and Ty Lee still visit her in her new place in Ireland. They always thought the bond of childhood was immovable until the Purge taught them how easily it could become nothing or even stronger than ever before.

"Azula," says Ty Lee as she softly sets Zuko down in his cradle. "We should get married."

"I…"

"You don't want to?"

"Of course I do. I just never expected you to be so forward about something like that."

"Sometimes you just gotta say stuff."

Ty Lee walks over to Azula and presses her palms down on the windowsill, gazing out at the Eiffel Tower. She used to collect Parisian postcards, fashion, posters, an adorable suitcase her mother bought off a friend who used to live here. She just never thought the only reason she would move here would be to escape.

"So, what makes you say it now?" asks Azula, certain as she may be that it is because the news has, already two weeks beforehand, begun discussing the Purge in America ad nauseum.

"I'm tired of running from the past. Like, everything I do is based on it. I feel kinda like we're based on it too. Like we're too scared of it to do anything real. I wanna marry you because then we can start a future. For you, for me, for Zuko." She means for two Zukos when she speaks, and both know it, though neither feels able to acknowledge it.

"I need time to plan a proper proposal, and then you'll have it."

"I wanna be with you forever, okay? I get so scared when you get up early or you're not there in bed and I can't feel your heart."

"Don't be gushy like that. It makes me ill."

Ty Lee offers a small, emotionless smile before proceeding with her musings. "My heart broke, y'know? That night, last year. It's never going to get all the way better but I feel like we're putting the pieces back. Slowly."

Azula just kisses her. Deeply, passionately.

She does not know what else to do, what else to say.

Because maybe she does know a thing or two about hearts. Breaking them, mending them, losing them, giving them away.

And the thing about hearts?

They can break a thousand times and still keep beating.

**e**nd

* * *

A/N: The best birthday present I could ever receive is your thoughts on this story. It's the one that is serving as my comeback to fanfic. I'm working on finishing the chapters for my other stories to update them all and start finishing some more fics that have been waiting ages for my attention. Thank you so much for reading this and I hope you enjoyed the show.


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